JGoth.com :: Japan Goth and Industrial Music

Group suicides continue to feature in the Japanese press. The numbers are very low compared to total suicides in Japan (something on the order of 30,000), but it is worrying. The latest reports have nine people dying of asphyxiation in two suspected suicide pacts on Saturday, February 5.

Six people died in Kanagawa after sealing the the window of the van they had rented and burning charcoal briquettes to release carbon monoxide (read Mainichi article). All victimes, three men and three women, appeared to be in their 20s. In East Izu, a man and two women, aged in their 30s and 40s died using similar means in a rented car (see ABC article).
There’s around 100 articles and these stories will probably be findable on Google News for a while.

Tee hee – Igor’s first story from 1997! I remember when I met the entity now called Igor. It was a few years back and he gave me his cute home-made business card with his Web page on it. Upon seeing the said page, I reached the early conclusion that this person was a little strange – now I know why. Now, Igor willing, I give you his first online act of creativity – the story of a man with no pants patrolling the streets of Fujisawa.

Mr. No Pants – Fujisawa
13th August 1997

A man with no pants?

Two weeks ago I saw a man in Fujisawa wearing what looked like a designer shirt and a pair of nice shoes. What was missing? His pants! Not only that there was also a distinct lack of underwear as well!!!

I was in the McDonald’s overlooking the street near the train-station (Fujisawa-eki) when, at around 4:30pm, I saw the man walking down the middle of the street exhibiting his wares! No one in the street or in the McDonalds appeared to notice that there was someone walking right next to them with no pants on. Even people who could not avoid the sight, incredibly, managed to overlook this minor detail in the landscape.

This sight was too much for me, so I began laughing out loud. Here is a guy with no pants and nobody sees! However, when I started to laugh everyone, who chose not to see Mr No Pants, stared at me as if I was crazy!!! Hmmmm. Evidently, people here can easily ignore the extreme, but normal strange is easy to see – ahhh look at that crazy Gaijin, laughing at thin air.

I have done some research into this man – No Pants-san. He has been spotted by a number of my students in Fujisawa. Apparently he is some kind of local attraction/distraction. People have said that he is not homeless, and probably enjoys this lifestyle.

Well, he does have a good physique and, I suspect, he has taken great care to wax his body. If I see him again, I am going to have to take a picture for a look at alternative J-Style.

Another view

No Pants-san might actually be working for the beauty industry – in particular the waxing industry. He could be promoting a new “Go Natural Man” life-style. If enough people decide this looks like a good lifestyle then the body wax industry will enjoy rapid growth in full lower body waxing!

This marketing style has been used before in Japan. Sony used a similar marketing style in its initial strategy to get the Walkman off the ground. According to Akio Morita (Made in Japan, Harper Collins 1988), one of the founding members of Sony and retired president:

Of course, we helped stimulate sales [of the Walkman] by advertising heavily, and in Japan we hired young couples to stroll through the Tokyo Ginza ‘Pedestrian Paridise’ on Sundays listening to their Walkmans and showing them off.

Perhaps there is a new brand of body wax on the market, and No Pants-san Fujisawa is part of a clever marketing strategy to exhibit the features of this new product.

“Excuse me, do you notice how smooth and nice my whole lower body is. I just used the new Waxman to remove all my body hair….. it is painless and look at the results….”

So, anyone travelling to Japan should check out Fujisawa – who knows, you might meet No Pants too. If anyone else out there has seen this local attraction, please let me know.

Back in December there was a very interesting article (extract is free, but full text is pay per view) that took a clinical look at the recent trend of Internet-initiated suicide pacts. This little piece was originally reported in my blog, but the topic continues to be current so has been re-edited for JP Goth.

According to the article:

The recent suicide pacts in Japan might just be isolated events in a country that has even previously been shown to have the highest rate of suicide pacts. Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over the internet, becoming increasingly common. If the latter is the case then the epidemiology of suicide pacts is likely to change, with more young people living on their own, who may have otherwise committed suicide alone, joining with like minded suicidal persons to die together.

The article goes on about suicide-rates being exasperated by psychological manipulation/control by the dominant person in the group, sneaks a look into pathologies involved, and looks at the possibilities of this phenomenon growing in and outside Japan. All kinds of interesting bits and pieces. Sorry, it’s Wednesday and you don’t need to read this stuff (still that’s better than reading it on Sunday or Monday).

A BBC article posted in December 2004, Japan’s internet ‘suicide clubs’ takes a look at the emerging trend in Japan whereby suicidal people are getting together to perform the final act. While originally posted on my blog when the article first appeared, I thought it valid to include the post in current JP Goth 2 news.

Well, the Beeb has done a mighty fine job of reporting on Japan’s Internet suicide clubs in this article. While my beloved Mainichi shows no fear in reporting the darker side of Japan, it’s really something to see someone go out and talk to people and take an in-depth look at the phenomenon. Japan’s internet ‘suicide clubs’ by Andrew Harding lets you hear what suicide club members have to say and how they perceive the world.

“Last night I was up all night,” said Naoki, smiling again, “talking online to this woman who really – I mean really – wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn’t because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they’ve gone.”

There’s also a bit of coverage of what can go on in these clubs and some perspectives on the effect of clubs and the perception of suicide in Japan.

Well worth a read if you want to understand a bit about the issue.

Check JP Goth suicide news.

Whether packed for a holiday or hidden in a closet, the humble suitcase plays a relatively mundane role in our every day lives. But take a crime, a murder, a need to hide the deadly deed and little time to think for a fevered panicked mind – where can the corpse go? It is times like these that the brilliant idea of getting out the old suitcase comes to mind – it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

On January 26 this year a local official was taken aback by discovering just such a body-bearing suitcase in a park. The body of a woman, believed to be Thai, was found stuffed inside a silver suitcase, covered in leaves in a wooded area of Chigasaki Park in Yokohama. Police launched an investigation after an autopsy found she died of blood loss after being stabbed sometime the day before. I’m sure the boys in blue could have guessed this at the time of discovery, but as we all know, there are such things as due process.

In April 2004 a body was found in a suitcase floating on the murky Edogawa river out in Edogawa ward. It appears that the suitcase with the body was dropped into the river on February 26 by a South Korean man, who was later extradited to Japan. The victim was a South Korean woman who was strangled by the murderer after she demanded repayment of debts he and two others owed her.

In August 2002, the body of a South Korean woman was found inside a suitcase hidden on a building material storage site in Chiba. The authorities were looking for a South Korea man who was believed to have been dating the victim’s sister and disputes regarding money and material goods with the victim.

Back in 2001, another suitcase in the Edogawa river producing a South Korean victim and alleged murderer. This time the victim was the murderer’s sister-in-law, killed for constantly accusing the murderer of laziness and incompetence.

What leaves me with a raised brow is that all the victims and murderers in this small sample are not Japanese. Does that tell me anything? Not really, but there you go.

Ladies and gentleman! Bring out the lace, leather long-coats and codpieces, because Gothfather Genet is gearing up for the first Tokyo Dark Castle of the year! Standing at the zennith, or mayhaps the nadir, of Japan’s Goth/underground scene, TDC is an event not to be missed.

Starting at the witching hour on March 5, the dark lords and ladies shall indulge you until the next morn.

Along with this re-animation comes a new Tokyo Dark Castle Web site repleat with news, pictures, chat board and more. Go forth young Goth and join Japan’s most fashionable creatures of the night!

Event info:
Event: Tokyo Dark Castle Vol. 10
Place: Shibuya DeSeo
Address:1F, Dai-2 Okazaki Bldg., Sakuragaoka-Chou, 3-3 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031 † Map
Club Phone: 03-5457-0303
Date: Saturday March 5, 2005
Start: 24:00 ~ Next morning
Price: 3,000 yen advance (3,500 at door)
Note: Must be 18 or more (they check IDs you know)
Bands: Auto-Mod (with Camilla), Despair , Jubilee, Destruct System, Aural Vampire, Kokushoku Sumiru (Black Violet), and Chronotrigger.
DJs: Kohki (lead for Destruct System), Taizo, Violet and Chihiro
VJ: kihito
Other: Exhibitions with some seriously cool stuff on offer from Vampire of Rose, Aberrant Corpses, Galvanic Bone & Skull Art and more.
Web site: http://tokyounderground.net/
Club page: http://www.deseo.co.jp/