[MMM]

Please understand you are looking at suicide and what it means through Western eyes, not Japanese eyes.

Suicide has been a part of Japanese society for a very long time, and people don't always do it only because of what you might consider extreme depression.

There are many famous stories of samurai committing suicide when their master/leader is killed. Suicide as means of keeping one's honor is a well-documented cultural phenomenon, and in some ways escaping death can be considered dishonorable.

Of course in modern times it is very hard on the families, and rarely is a death publicly declared a suicide, but is called an "accident".

There is a lot more to this, and I have only scratched the surface, but I just want you to be careful when you associate Japan's high suicide rate = very depressed or lonely people.