Japan Pictoureal

This is a selection of photos from an ongoing project about suicide in Japan. Here are images from the suicide forest in Yamanashi Prefecture, which I have visited about 20 times. There are more images on my online archive here

I spent two days in Taiji on an assignment and witnessed something I am not likely to forget in a hurry. As Justin McCurry describes in his excellent article this town is possitively Orwellian. I couldn’t take out my camera without someone in Taiji objecting. We had barely been there for 10 minutes when we were stopped by the police and a fisheries person basically was assigned to ensure we didn’t see what they didn’t want us to see. But we saw plenty
More pix on Photoshelter archive in above slideshow and here

A pic from last night’s election briefing at the Liberal Democratic Party’s HQ. To atone for his party’s poor showing in the lower house elections, PM Taro Aso said he would step down as leader of his party, ending an almost unbroken 54-year reign for the conservative LDP. Wander what’s in store for Japan under the Democratic Party of Japan, which has been labelled in the Japanese media as the better of two evils? Well, it’s leader and quite likely the next Japan PM, Yukio Hatoyama, says “We will not be arrogant. We will listen to the people.” That’ll do for starters.

Aug. 15, the day that marked Japan’s surrender in the Pacific War, is also a day when Japanese make the pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine, often referred to as “Japan’s Soul” and the place where convicted war criminals are interred. As a result, it is a magnet for nationalists and right-wingers. You can find more images that I took during a day which took me from the shrine, to the national cemetery and then on to another cemetery that houses the grave of Japan’s war-time leader Hideki Tojo here.
Also here a photo story on Japanese nationalism that ran in Global Post recently. Comments welcome!

I recently visited Japan’s infamous suicide forest – a chilling experience. Japan’s suicide numbers have consistently topped 30,000 over the past several years, and the forest, located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, has been a favored suicide location since the 80s. Inside the forest I came across no bodies, but plenty of reminders of the grim last few hours of several people’s lives.