Japanese abhor suicide and avoid discussion of it.

The narrow views that people who commit suicide are emotionally weak or that suicide is rare are well-entrenched. The surviving family members must deal with unwarranted prejudice.

However, the number of people who kill themselves in Japan reaches around 30,000 people a year -- this number is six times more than the death in traffic accidents. Suicide has become a serious social problem. In this connection, we believe that creating opportunities to face up to the reality of suicide is an important first step. This campaign spreads the public awareness message by using imageries depicting actual suicide sites, surviving family members and hard-hitting numeric data.