How to Stop a Suicide

There's a forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji where people often go to commit suicide…usually because they are overwhelmed by debt.

The organization, Cre-Sara Hirenkyo, has a plan to prevent some of the suicides.

Put up signs in the "Sea of Trees" (aokigahara) telling people to stop, call for help, turn around.

And…it works.

Two times in the past the group put up signs. They worked well enough that about 10 people called a hotline for help.

They worked so well, that the prefectural government made them take the signs down because they didn't have approval to put them up in the first place.

Huh!?

Permission NOT in hand…the group is back to putting up the signs WHILE, not AFTER they get permission.

From 50-100 bodies are found each year in the 'Sea of Trees.'

It seems to me that the prefectural government ought to get on the stick.

If the signs help to prevent people from taking their lives…then what's the big deal?