"Hello, how are you?": How one person saved more than 600 suicides with a simple phrase

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For 15 years, Yukio Shige worked in the police, and his last years of service were held 320 kilometers west of Tokyo in the rocky area of Tojimbo. And it was there that he often had to pull the bodies of suicides out of the water. When he retired, he decided that he would save potential suicides.

One day in 2003, Shige saw an elderly couple next to a rock, and when he spoke to them, he learned that they were the owners of a bar who had gone bankrupt. Because of this, they decided to jump off the Tojimbo cliff. A police officer called in a squad to take the couple to the Bureau of Employment and Welfare. But they were just taken home, and a few days later these people hanged themselves. After that, Yukio Shige realized that he wanted to save people from suicide.

The ex-policeman managed to assemble a team of volunteers of 20 people who constantly look after the dangerous area. Shige even learned to predict when the next unfortunate, confused person will appear. He is sure that in order to save most of them, it is enough just to have a heart-to-heart talk. “I just say, 'Hi, how are you?' These people want to be helped. They just need someone to talk to them. I save people as if I were communicating with friends. There is nothing exciting about it,”says the policeman and admits that not everyone can be saved. 10-15 people die on Tojimbo Rock every year. But the death toll could have been much higher, because thanks to Shige and his team, 600 people remain alive every year.

Shige and his guys know for sure that suicides usually choose sunny days, and no one tries to jump off a cliff in the rain. The number of suicide attempts rises during financial crises, and when the school year begins, both students and schoolchildren face problems.

Yukio Shige related one of the cases. Once on a rock, he noticed a 17-year-old girl. He took her to his office, gave her some tea and asked what had happened. It turned out that the girl came to the rock because of her parents, who expected great success from her. Somehow she got a bad grade and because of this came to the Tojimbo rock.

Shige called his parents and they came for his daughter. The former police officer talked to them, explained that the girl was feeling serious pressure from them and asked only one question: "What is more important - the life of a daughter or her results at school?"

It is worth noting that suicide in Japan is one of the most serious problems and the most common cause of death among people aged 15-39. Depression, family problems, unemployment and very strong pressure at work and at school are the main reasons why people decide to die.

It is worth noting that the practice of hara-kiri went into the history of Japan - ritual suicide and a matter of honor for the samurai … But that's a completely different story.