Several days ago while I was reading my friends’ posts on Face book, one of my friend’s post caught my attention. That post was about “Japan's suicide rate for job seekers jumps”.
CNN News reported on” Japan's suicide rate for job seekers jumps”. Japanese National Police Agency reported on last Thursday that the number of suicide rate in Japanese children who couldn’t find the job increased by 20 percents from year 2009. The health, labor and welfare ministry said the suicide rate of people in Japan has been over 30,000 in the past 13 years (¶9). On World Suicide Prevention Day Japanese government had launched the campaign in order to decrease the number of suicide rate but I doesn’t really help out.
Even though Japan is one of a highest developed country in this world but Japan has a big problem on suicide rate of people. High developed country came with stress and high competition in society. I know some of Japanese friends when I was talking to them on how they spent their life when they were young, their answers were the same, and they have to study really hard in order to enter top universities in Japan. Every day after school they have to study extra class in order to prepare themselves for university’s test and when they went back home they had to study again. After I listened to that I just thought back to Thai children especially my child life, my child life was full of fun and happiness. I studied hard but not as hard as the Japanese did. At that time I thought that were they happy with that way of life. Stress is good but too much stress is not good because it would harm your health. I think Japanese life is full of stress since they were young that may be the cause of suicide because you always compete with each other, you must be the best and the more you can be the best the more you can success in your life. But I think this kind of thinking is wrong, sometimes we couldn’t compare ourselves to the others because different people have different preference and different talent. I might good at studying English but I’m not good at drawing while the others might good at drawing but not English. You see this is not something we can compare to the others. I think just do the best in what we love is the best.
Japan's suicide rate for job seekers jumps. (2011, March 3). CNN News. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/japan.suicide.rate/index.html
I agree with Nan that Thai children don’t work or study as hard as Japanese people do, except for some group of Thai student that want to get in to top universities or majoring in hard-to-get—into program. Since children were born, parents should not be too strict about studying or education, but should balance it with happiness equally. Also they should educate them that when they grow up, whether they get good job or not , they should satisfy and happy with it and importantly highly value yourselves. For government, they should increase resident more tax in order to raise the salary. Doing that way is not the only way to solve the problem but employer in Japan should do it as well.
ReplyDeleteLike Japanese people, Chinese children also have the same problems.In order to go to a good university,they study very hard. Maybe their scores are very high in school, but they do not have social life;they do not know how to communicate with other people; they also do not know how to use their mind and so on. There are have many competions in the social life. It is not only get scores, but also think independently.
ReplyDeleteIt might also depend on Japanese tradition and belief. For instance, Japan has been known for their ritual practice "Harakiri", its purpose is to avoid dishonor, in other word, to die instead of living in shame. Even though this practice was abolished by government, some people still attach to this belief. I'd like to make a comparison between Thailand and Japan. In Thailand, we belief that committing suicide is a serious sin, in fact, it is even worse than killing other person. However, in Japan, committing suicide can be regarded as a form of bravery or patriotism. For example, after their defeat in WWII, in order to keep the nation pride, Emperor Hirohito broadcast to all Japanese citizen and encouraged them to commit suicide rather than let themselves be taken prisoners, and those who followed should be granted an equal spiritual status as high as a solider who fought in war. That is their Bushido belief, and I think it is cowardice. The true bravery, in my meaning, is to face whatever obstacles may bring you, and to realize your value that it does not end with just one serious mistake; or if you're so messed up, find help!. Without a doubt, Japan is one of the most powerful countries in the world, and like other countries, it has its own affair. I like Japan a lot in many aspects and its culture has also been a part of influences on my life, I sincerely hope that they will find the best solution to put an end to this problem.
ReplyDeleteReference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku#Seppuku_in_modern_Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
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ReplyDeleteIn the past, when I heard someone suicide that I doubted how they sad or how they disappoint until they can make decision to kill themselves. But, last year I have a crisis problem, I totally understand why people can kill themselves. Fortunately,I have a great family who are very love me especially my mom, so I cannot kill myself when I thought about my mom and the impact will happen if I done it.
ReplyDeleteSome problems are a small thing to someone, but they are a huge to someone too. Some adults cannot understand why teenagers can hurt themselves or suicide when they are just broken heart even though they were adolescence before. In case of Japanese, I think that the percentages seem to increase because this is a competition era. The number of suicide rates is increasing around the world even though in Thailand. This is one possible explanation for this is that people are get stress more than the past. Not only they have to hard work to make money for their family, but also they have to compete with others about everything because overpopulation in nowadays.
Sometimes taking in balance of life may be the good thing to human life. Logically, when people were die that nobody cannot belong everything. Hence, everybody should do about forgiveness, too generous, letting oneself on, and so on that make everyone happy.
Although there are many cases of suicide that relate highly competitive life, I think the key cause of suicidal should be individual sensitive mind. Since, today, many parents try to offer everything that is the best for their children. They get everything they want and those things are as good as possible. The children rarely experience feeling disappointed or bad situations that they inevitably encounter in they life. That means their mind are weakened by their parents, leading to be susceptible to kill themselves when they are disappointed. Thus, it is not fair that people always take social impacts to children's suicide. In my opinion, parents should let their children experience some disappointment, so that they will learn to be optimistic and more realize their self-esteem. Besides, some parents pressure their children by setting very high goal, for example, some parents force their children to be a doctor. As a result, whether the children will accomplish that goal, or not, they are being forced to do something they do not love. Hence, when children are doing something that they do not love to do, they will never sense of their self-esteem and will no longer value their life. This will eventually leads to suicide.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this article,I known that Japan's suicide has been a bid problem since a long time ago.I used to watch a Thai shot film.It is about a Japanese's routine.It reflect many aspects which are unexpectedly.As you known,Japan is a nation which is a developed country ,and the population of Japan must face a high competition.They fell like they always have to compete all the time.This's a big reason why they get stressed.Besides, a cost of living in Japan is very high.The shot film told that nowadays Japan face with the financial crisis, and one of a large percentage of suicide is an older population.Because of welfare,in the past,Japanese welfare for retired people was very well,but nowadays it's opposite.So,in my view a cost of living is a one cause of suicide.
ReplyDeleteToday I heard the bad news about a tsunami.I hope Japan will recover soon.