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Japanese man streams suicide live on the internet
A Japanese man has committed suicide live on the internet after being egged on by users of an online chat room.
The man, who lived alone, started a live stream on Sunday evening, repeating his plans to commit suicide Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 7:00AM GMT 11 Nov 2010
The 24-year-old man, who has not been named, was found dead in his apartment in the city of Sendai early on Tuesday morning. Police had been alerted by viewers of the Ustream web page and were able to locate the man's apartment. By the time they arrived at 8am, however, the man was already dead.
The man had announced his intention to kill himself in online chat rooms last week, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, after complaining for some weeks about problems he had been experiencing at work. Employed by a bank, the man had been suspended from his duties since August.
The man, who lived alone, started a live stream on Sunday evening, repeating his plans to commit suicide. While some people posted messages attempting to talk him out of going through with his plans, others encouraged him to kill himself. Apparently believing they were watching a hoax, some viewers even suggested that he hurry up and get it over with.
Police told local media that the man initially tried to hang himself with a twisted sheet on the balcony of his apartment shortly before 4am on Tuesday. When that attempt failed, the footage showed the man looking for a stronger anchoring point for the home-made noose and repeating the attempt at 5:30am.
People watching online debated whether the footage was genuine until Ustream halted the broadcast and the police were informed. Some 32,845 Japanese people killed themselves in 2009 and the rate is likely to remain above the 30,000 threshold for the 13th straight year when the statistics for 2010 are released.
