[RealJames]

oookaaaay
I just finished a very long debate/argument with my gf about suicide in Japan, here's what it boils down to according to her (as always, she may well be wrong)

In western and middle eastern cultures there is a stigma associated with suicide (and also sex for that matter) due to religion and how religion shaped modern day culture, regardless of if someone believes in it or not now, they still live in a culture shaped by it.

In Japan where, yes there is religion, but it's hardly taken seriously by anyone, these stigmas are if not non-existent then very mild.
Her mother said "if my husband tried to leave me for another girl I'd kill myself in front of him (as a punishment)".

In Japanese culture, life is not so reverent, holy, sacred, important etc as westerners perceive it to be in their own.

These things I said are generalizations to capture the general feel of the culture, of course many exceptions exist and many people disagree with it.