Bio
Tokyo Suicide is an Australian two-piece band consisting of Jason Powell and Glenn Marshall.
Jason and Glenn (Tokyo Suicide) started collaborating together in 2004 and their forthcoming album 'Black and White Town' which is due to be released in Autumn 2011, brings together an eclectic mix of original recordings that spans the last seven years.
'Tokyo Suicide' is an effect, a social comment on the destruction of society, from the social pressures associated with 'saving face'
Tokyo (by Clive France)
”Thirty thousand people commit suicide in Japan every year, but if we could diagnose them and treat them in time, that number would go down dramatically,” said Tadashi Onda, a Tokyo psychiatrist, almost half of whose practice consists of depressed patients. ”I’ve never even heard of anyone specializing in depression, though. The bigger problem in Japan is that a stigma attaches to anyone seen as treating crazy people, and the status of psychiatrists remains very low.” NYT
The Japanese take great pride in having the most punctual train system in the world. If there is a delay on the Tokyo metro, more often than not it means that a suicide has just occurred. I can vouch for this first hand: As I walked into the Tokyo metro last week an announcement warned that the trains were delayed - I was facing a wait of perhaps an hour or more for a train that normally runs at 2 min intervals. My companion, who has been living in Japan for a year, told me quite matter-of-factly that someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, “it happens at least twice a week.” It therefore comes as no surprise that the JR Yamanote metro line in Tokyo plans to install anti-suicide barriers on platforms at all 29 stations by 2017 in an attempt to prevent this nuisance. Meanwhile, the train companies have instituted a “dely fee” of approximately 100 million yen (1 million dollars) that must be paid by the families of those who chose to use the trains as their means of suicide. This fine was introduced in the hope that it would serve as a deterrent. After all, there are several less expensive and disruptive ways to commit suicide.
