by Snydeman
I’m not sure I’d say things in Japan are fine…
Japan’s Youth Suicide Rate highest…
Or, this:
“In Japan, suicide borders on a crisis level, though the government has been active in intervention to decrease the risk of suicide among vulnerable populations. It is the leading cause of death in men among the ages of 20-44 and for women among the ages of 15 to 34.
In Japanese culture, suicide, in some circumstances, has long been viewed as an honorable way to die. Consider the kamikaze pilots during World War II, whose greatest honor was to dive-bomb a plane into an Allied warship and die in the process. The practice of military suicide has been going on since at least the time of the Samurai warlords and is one factor in Japan’s high suicide rate.
Japanese men are twice as likely to commit suicide as their female counterparts, particularly after a divorce. Of special concern is suicide among men who have recently lost their jobs and are no longer able to provide for their families. They may feel that they have dishonored themselves and their families and that suicide is the honorable way out of the situation. With a high cultural tolerance for suicide, many older adults end their lives after they retire. Aokigahara Forest, at the base of Japan’s Mount Fuji, is a hotspot for suicides, as hundreds of people go there each year to end their lives. Police regularly patrol the area for suicide victims and survivors.”
Or the numbers showing Japanese young people aren’t having much sex.
Seems like a culture that has lost itself somewhere, and it’s not alone. The number of millennials turning their backs on lots of traditional things seems to be a trend across the developed world, and I would posit that this is what happens when cultures and the people in them lose their sense of purpose, existence, or connection.