Japan to set up SNS helpline to prevent suicides

December 19, 2017

Tokyo- The Japanese government decided Tuesday to establish a helpline on social networking sites for young people with suicidal thoughts in order to prevent the recurrence of the grisly murders in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, earlier this year.

As part of a package of preventive measures adopted at a meeting of related ministers, the government will also strengthen cyberpatrol efforts to ensure that posts abetting suicide are deleted.

"We must make sure that these measures are implemented properly, and never allow the occurrence of such brutal and heinous crimes," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stressed at the meeting.

Suga has instructed relevant ministries to work closely on the matter, verify the effectiveness of each measure and reflect the results in a review of the government's outline of comprehensive measures to prevent suicides.

In October, the dismembered bodies of nine people were found at an apartment in Zama. The suspect is believed to have contacted the victims via social media, taking advantage of their suicidal thoughts and luring them to his apartment to murder them.

Up to now, suicide prevention helplines have been operated mainly through telephone, but the new measure will utilize SNS sites, an indispensable communication tool for young people.

The education ministry is considering offering a subsidy of up to 10 million yen to 25 local governments of prefectures and ordinance-designated major cities to help them set up helplines for students on SNS and smartphone apps.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which plans to outsource the SNS helpline project to the private sector, plans to start seeking applications from businesses as early as this month.

Furthermore, the government will commission a private-sector entity to conduct cyberpatrol operations from January 2018 to delete harmful information on the Internet, such as posts that attempt to lure people into committing suicide.

The government has also decided to add information trying to induce people to take their own lives to the list of illegal information to be covered by the Internet Hotline Center, a private organization commissioned by the National Police Agency to remove such information. Jiji Press