There is a video on the site that is disturbing. I hope this is not what is in store for the US. But I am afraid what is in store is even worse.

Death Of The Japanese Dream

By Matt Frei in Tokyo BBC News 8-19-99

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_425000/425457.stm

They call it the suicide line - the station in Tokyo's western suburbs where many Japanese take their own lives as the country struggles with serious economic gloom. Thirty thousand people committed suicide in Japan last year, double the 1997 rate.

The country is facing its worst recession since World War II. And, although there are growing signs of recovery, the old certainties of a lifetime of employment and growing prosperity have gone.

In the past, workers could expect secure jobs with the same employer until the end of their working days, regardless of their ability. But the recession and record unemployment have changed all that - and led to despair for many.

On average, 100 people are committing suicide every day in a society where, without state welfare, the loss of a job is an unacceptable loss of face and a devastating loss of income. One woman, sitting by herself for half an hour - suspiciously long for a rush-hour commuter - said she had been employed for five years as a clerk in a toy factory. "The trains are often delayed because of suicides, she said. "When people jump, it takes hours to get to the office. Not that it really matters - my work isn't going very well anyway." She said she was afraid of losing her job, but would not commit suicide.

New underclass

She had thought about it, but she was single; it was the people with families and mortgages who were in real trouble. For some, things look good. The pulse has returned to the economy, the Stock Market is up and shoppers are out in force. But a closer look reveals just how much Japan has changed. The new underclass of homeless and unemployed even populate the manicured gardens near the Imperial Palace. The Japanese dream is dead.

-- a (a@a.a), August 20, 1999

Answers

"Thirty thousand people committed suicide in Japan last year..."

Hogwash.

It's impossible. They have complete gun control there.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), August 20, 1999.

Thanks a, I can foresee a lot more of this in the near future. When the markets crash - look out - these whippersnappers (and old' uns that should know better) - have no grasp of history, no sense of what earning a buck really means, it's all a digital trade for them - these are the guys that will wake up one day and find their bubbles have burst around them...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 20, 1999.

No, but I thought their economy was doing well again. You mean Sakakibara lied at his little luncheon with Warburg Dillon? A finance minister talking about his economy in less than complete disclosure?

My personal theory on the Yen/Dollar weakness is that Fukoda will not step in. The Japanese are taking Yen home. Their economy sucks but they have to make it look good. Wouldn't want the world to think things are mighty screwed up there would we? Despite the fact that the entire banking industry is sitting on a portfolio of loans that would make a New York hooker blush, the world economy hailed the creation of the worlds largest bank. They may be forgetting that they are witnessing the worlds largest arrangement of deck chairs. All the asian tigers are not well. There's a big Chinese one that's having some rather large problems right now and if they go, those who are currently urinating upwind (our whiz kids on wall street) are gonna get awful wet.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), August 20, 1999.

Perhaps it's just a bump in the track, what do you think Flint?

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), August 20, 1999.

Ron- No hogwash here. The Japanese do things the old fashioned way... they leap off tall buildings, bungee jump by the neck, slip on the train tracks, fall onto swords. Loss of face is a serious thing for them.

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), August 21, 1999.

Sounds like they need train, sword and building control, too.

Here in the good ole USofA, we take down our employer, broker and family, too. I would rather see train delays, than watch some psycho take out everyone he ever came in contact with.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), August 21, 1999.

There was a below the fold front page story in the NY times about this a few weeks ago. It seems there is a park with high cliffs that's become so popular for those commiting suicide that ANYONE entering the park wearing a suit is arrested and questioned about their motives.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), August 21, 1999.

Gee Bill. Those are rare high profile events. Most gun suicides in the US just paint the ceiling with their own brains. Less likely to injure anyone else then all those falling Japanese bodies, what if they derailed a "Bullet"train with their corpse, how many would needlessly die?

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), August 22, 1999.