Aokigahara Forest
Aokigahara, also known as the Suicide Forest, is a forest on the northwestern flank of Japan's Mount Fuji thriving on 30 square kilometers of hardened lava. The western edge of Aokigahara, where there are several caves filled with ice, is a popular destination for tourists and school trips. Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava absorbs sound, helping to provide visitors with a sense of solitude.
The forest has a historical reputation as a home to "yūrei" or ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology. In recent years, Aokigahara has become internationally known as one of Japan's most popular destinations for suicide, and signs at the head of some trails urges suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.
Aokigahara has indeed become one of many destinations for suicide in Japan. For example, Aokigahara is sometimes referred to as the most popular site for suicide in Japan even though there is little evidence to support that claim. In fact, available statistics show many more Japanese choose to end their lives by jumping in front of trains in Tokyo than by venturing to the slopes of Mount Fuji.
In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, the police recorded more than 200 people having attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. In recent years, local officials have stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to decrease Aokigahara's association with suicide.
The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry, written in Japanese, urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and attendant journalists since 1970.
The site's popularity has been attributed to Seichō Matsumoto's 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees). However, the history of suicide is Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death; ubasute may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the yūrei of those left to die.
