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Eine Japanische Eisenbahngesellschaft versucht mit großen Spiegeln, Suizid-Willige von ihrer Absicht abzubringen:

Trains brightened up in effort to stem suicides By MICHAEL MILLETT, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo

Japan's railway companies are resorting to novel measures including the use of bold lighting, brighter colours and mirrors in a desperate bid to counter the growing number of train suicides. The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has disclosed that it will install large mirrors on platforms at some of its bigger stations. It is already experimenting with brightly coloured train crossings on the rationale that people are less likely to throw themselves in front of a moving train if confronted with a "cheerful" passageway.

The mirror is also a psychological ploy. Experts have apparently advised the company that brooding commuters are more likely to abandon suicidal thoughts if they feel that someone is watching them. Other measures include brighter lighting at underground stations, and sensors to warn people if they step too close to the edge of platforms.

The moves have been made necessary by the grim determination of disillusioned Japanese commuters to use the train system as a way of terminating their lives. Psychologists are still debating why so many Japanese choose such a grisly manner of death. Theories range from simple convenience - the train system is the main method of transportation for most Japanese - to a belief the victim is getting back at a perfect manifestation of the Japanese "system".

Conventional strategies - such as deploying more station guards and lighting dark station corners - have proved ineffective. Last December the company even set up a trial hot line for people in distress, hoping to dissuade people before they got to the station steps. But still the suicides keep coming - a legacy of Japan's enduring economic problems and its fraying social system.

Japan recorded its highest number of suicides in 1998: 32,863 or an average of 90 a day. While figures for last year have not been released, they are expected to rival the 1998 high. The Health and Welfare Ministry recorded 837 suicides in 1998 under the category of "jumping towards a moving object", although it is not clear how many of those were train suicides. JR East, which operates in and around the Tokyo area, recorded 212 suicides on its lines last year. Ten per cent were on the Chuo line that snakes through Tokyo's western suburbs, acting as the main feeder line for millions of commuters each day.

Chuo is regarded as the nation's most notorious "suicide line" because of the high number of deaths and the massive scheduling delays that follow. The first two stations to receive the 1.5-metre-high mirrors are Shinjuku and Ogikubo, the main access points for Chou line riders. Other train companies are watching the JR East experiments closely, and the company itself admits it is unsure how effective they will be. "Because we don't have any bright ideas ourselves, we thought we might as well try alternative plans," a company official was quoted as saying.