Pokemon Go, an alternative to suicide in Japan

It is said in Japan that the suicide rate in the Japanese cliffs has descended since people started playing Pokémon Go. Lately the game has been on the dark side of the news with lawsuits against them and terrible, fatal accidents because people drive and play at the same time, but there is light at the end of the tunnel because Pokémon has helped to reduce suicides in the Tojinbo cliffs which face the Sea of Japan.

Only last year one hundred and fifty people jumped to their death from these cliffs, the police say that it is impossible to control them all but that Pokémon is helping them and the deaths these year have reduced. The Japan Times reported that the suicide rate has dropped since August of this year and Yukio Shige, founder of a non-profit organization which deals with suicides says that the decrease in suicides is due to the fact that many Pokestops have been established in the cliffs and there are many pedestrians walking around at all times of day and night.

Shige says that when a person wants to commit suicide he or she looks for a quiet place where he or she can wallow on their problems for a bit before taking the final decision, the abundance of people on the cliffs trying to catch Pokémon has made this impossible. He also claims to have interviewed a suicidal person who told him that he had changed his mind because the atmosphere at the cliffs was not right anymore.

Pokémon Go is not a long time solution but it gives the people who change their minds the opportunity to live and try again, to seek counsel and find a solution to their problems. Anyway, if today and tomorrow Pokémon Go manages to save one life or two because someone is out looking for wild Pokémon, go right ahead and continue playing as long as you want, right?

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