TOKYO (Daily Pakistan Online) Authorities in central Japan are trying an unusual new approach to tackle the country’s long-standing suicide problem. Officials are printing messages of support on toilet paper. A message on this toilet paper reads, Dear One, Who Wants to End His Life.
Suicide is a long-standing problem in Japan, and like many places, it saw a spike in suicide deaths during the global pandemic. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of primary, middle and high school age students who died by suicide in 2020 reached 499.
Yamanashi officials believed that printing messages of encouragement and suicide prevention hotline numbers on sheets of toilet paper could be an effective and sensible way to help troubled youth. “You are alone in the toilet,” Yamanashi official Kenichi Miyazawa told the AFP news agency. We found that these are the moments when you may be most vulnerable to anxious thoughts’.
During this campaign, 6,000 rolls of toilet paper printed with messages and phone numbers were distributed to 12 regional universities last month.
