The Daily News of Thursday quotes from a newly published
magazine, The Far East, some astonishing statistics of suicide in Japan. No disgrace attaches to self-slaughter among the Japanese, with the result that, on the average, about 4,606 males and nearly 3,000 females commit suicide every year. In the years under review—i.e., 1890-94-14,799 men and 6,188 women hanged themselves ; 5,269 men and 6,825 women drowned themselves; 1,234 men and 597 women performed "the happy despatch" with knives or swords; 390 men and 32 women shot themselves ; 266 men and 131 women took poison; and 1,072 men and 349 women killed themselves in mis- cellaneous fashions. July in particular, and the summer months in general, are, as in Europe, the favourite times for suicide. Most curious are the causes of suicide. It appears that 10,049 of the men and 6,782 of the women committed suicide through madness; 5,338 men and 1,986 women through "distress or grief regarding means of living, or some misfortune;" 2,610 men and 1,674 women through "bodily suffering (sickness);" 782 men and 1,107 women through "love and affection;" 1,036 men and 363 women through "remorse and shame." The rest of the analysis is too long to quote, but it is curious to notice that no suicides are directly attributed to what -Bacon called "niceness and satiety,"—i.e., ennui. Is this merely defective analysis or do the Japanese not feel any horror or weariness to do the same thing so often ? They are a wonderful people the Japanese, but this readiness to desert their posts is not a healthy sign.
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