p2pnet - rss feed: Japanese Net-linked suicides
p2pnet.net OT News Feature:- “I was in Japan over the summer, spending time with a friend of mine,” said a p2pnet Reader’s Write in a post on Japanese suicide pacts. “I was shocked to see that a lot of Japanese school girls carry around ‘Gloomy Bear’!” - the comment post continued. “Its a little ‘Japanified’ bear that has really long claws and kills people, and children seem to love him for it. Japanese girls consider this VERY cute… and when I asked them why, they had no answer… just repeated ‘very cute’.”
The posts includes several urls and the pic on the right links to a Mori Chack site featuring a huge, bloodied animated bear being hugged by an equally bloodied child and which in turn has links to a store front and street stall selling, presumably, Gloomy Bears. 
Another link goes to a sweatyfrog.com sales page. “Mori Chack’s Gloomy Bear creature feeds off humans to survive?” - it asks . “Yikes!” - it goes on. “This 6″ rendition on Gloomy is very soft, except for his claws! Claws are soft plastic and characterize Gloomy’s dark side!”
What’s Gloomy Bear all about, apart from death and dismemberment? Mori Chack is a 29-year-old illustrator and his Gloomy Bear is an, “abandoned little bear” who’s been “rescued by a boy named pity. although gloomy is cute, he is also a wild animal. look at those bloody claws! this is not a toy for the faint of heart. gloomy is 10″ tall (left) and constructed of pink vinyl. he can stand and move his arms too!”
With the above in mind, Japan’s communications and Net services industry is planning to provide police information on people who post messages suggesting they may be close to committing suicide, says Reuters, quoting the Kyodo news agency and going on:
“Four communications industry groups have worked out guidelines for submitting the information, which could include the names and addresses of such people. Rising numbers of Japanese are dying each year in group suicides after meeting online via suicide web sites, posing a new problem for officials trying to tackle the nation’s alarmingly high suicide rate.”
In the first half of this year, 70 people committed group suicides linked to the Internet, “eclipsing last year’s total of 55, Kyodo said,” says the story, adding:
“No religious prohibitions exist against suicide in Japan and it has long been seen as a way to escape failure, or of saving loved ones from embarrassment or financial loss.”
“English Media Reports misuderstanding the difference between ‘group suicide’ and media dubbed ‘internet suicde pacts’- a grim and and growing trend for inaccurate, badly researched and misleading,” says another post to the p2pnet story.
“So if you are interested in getting a deeper, hype free and spin free report on so called suiciced internet pacts just check out these online resources from’Japan Mental Health’ Blog written by some of the many of the mental healthcare professional living and working in Japan, who know from personal experience in their eveyday work the true reality behind the hype of the sentational and often sterotypical press and media reports on Suidide in Japan 2004.”
The first link, to Japan Suicide Pacts, no longer works. The second is Japan Suicide.
See:-
Reader’s Write - Japanese suicide pacts, February 18, 2005
Reuters - Japan internet providers to inform on suicide posts, August 25, 2005
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August 25th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
So what do they do to these people when the authorities discover them?
August 25th, 2005 at 9:19 pm
haha! I 2 was also in japan last summer, and was a little shocked to see the stuffed toy “Gloomy Bear”. My friend there had one on a keychain on her purse, and they were in every toy store, some even had the bloody nailtips!
I had known about Gloomy Bear before I actually went to Japan… but I was surprised to actually find out that it was a common toy!!!!! XD
I couldn’t get a straight answer out of my friend on why it was so popular… lol I think to her, it was a much more inocent idea. lol In some ways, maybe it is.
Although this story makes me realize that Gloomy Bear, and the popular Anime “Paranoia Agent” are quite simmilar!! In the Anime, there is a link between a cute little pink dog with sleepy eyes called Miromi )or something like that), and a rummored ’spirit’ kind of being that goes around killing people with a baseball bat called Shonen Bat! In the end we find out that Miromi and Shonen Bat are the same, in that they both are created and given life, through the collective minds of the people. lol its an instesting story, and I can’t explain it myself to well.
Shonen Bat is like a savior for people that are emotionally/stress cornered, cause he takes away their pain, by killing them.
Anyway, I can imagine the maker of the anime might have been playing on the Gloomy Bear culture icon. lol
Also in the anime there ACTUALLY is an episode about group suicide through the internet! Its actually quite funny, in a creapy kind of way… and you dont really know if they actually succeed in comitting the act… but I think they did. lol
On the topic of suicide, my personal belief is that its a choice, but not one to take likely… I’ll spare the arguments lol… I just think our culture makes it seem too much like a bad thing…
In Japan, its almost common, from what I’ve seen, to walk away from an attempted suicide, with nothing more than a slap on the rist, and a discuraging statement… lol but I could be wrong.
Still, Japan has a heavy cultural history of Suicide… And it wasn’t considered a bad thing at all! It was the honorable way to go, if you had lost your honor. And there were other reasons it was used too… lol
August 25th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
http://www.paranoiaagent.com/
there is a trailer there if anyone wants it XD… although, nothing can do the series justice, you just need to watch it for yourself… and its not nearly as confusing as say, the end of Evangelion… its easier on the brain… lol
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3169
August 26th, 2005 at 1:26 am
It’s interesting how the first part of the article is about gloomy bear and the second part is about online suicide pacts.
There is no link between them, but the article suggest the first leads to the second or is somehow connected with it.
This alleged link is never explained, defined or summarised. It would be interesting to read *WHAT* exactly these too topics have in common.
Besides the “death” connection (which frankly is in about everything from foods [dead plants and animals] to health care products [made from… you guessed it dead plants and animals or derived products] ) there does not seem to be much correlation between the two.
Gloomy bear seems like a vicious animal who can protect itself by killing its foes.
Suicide groups on the internet attracts those who want to escape hardship.
Unless you suggest that the gloomy bears are manipulating vulnerable people into comitting suicide, I’m not sure I get the logic of the article.
As for the gloomy bear itself, it reminds me of Princess Mononoke.
August 26th, 2005 at 2:37 am
The connection (for me) is a mindset possibly shared by people with Gloomy Bears, and those bent on suicide.
Owning a Gloomy Bear could be a metaphorical yearning for death.
August 28th, 2005 at 4:33 am
The connection is to show culture and how their beliefs. It isn’t that the bears cause the deaths, but that they don’t see such symbols as bad things. They are okay with sex and violence where many in the Western countries would find it outragous (even more in the US). The beginning helps you understand the problem.
July 8th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I love Gloomy Bear, and it doesn’t connect me with death.
I like a cute animal with a dark side.
But CUTE is all it is.
It’s not meant to have suicidal meaning behind it, well, not for most.
Everyone I know loves Gloomy Bear also.
So we carry around gloomy bear stuffed animals or keychains.?
It doesn’t mean we have a deathwish.
It’s just a stuffed animal with a twist. LMFAO. A badass bear.
The animations, are on my myspace page.
Maybe adults want to interpret as something more, but we teenagers, don’t.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:00 am
This is silly. Are they saying that Gloomy Bear has something to do with others’ suicidal acts?
It’s a cute icon that’s just for everyone to enjoy.
After all, Gloomy bear is not a real bear.
And Pity is not a real child.
August 11th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
gLOomy bEaR.. eS la oNdAa.. (L)
October 4th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
hahah gloomy bear hahah sta
shengonsesemo xD
hahaha me largow!
ese oso rosa es fregon!
_/\_
)uU(
January 25th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
i love gloomy bear just like adding cute with violence just same with me
February 11th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
bears rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 11th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
killing bear
July 27th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Your article doesn’t make sence. First you talked about this “gloomy bear”, then you talk about internet suicide…yet you never clearly stated the connection. What was the point of writing this post?
October 13th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Haa? i dont think the Glommy bears of a icon based on kill ppl. Hack i own a gloomy bear my self! What i think is that japanese ppl dont really think of or look at the bloody cover parts thats on gloomy. they just think of a cute pink bear.i think so 2. i mean our teddy bears are no different then them, i mean think about if u read about bears or check them out on the internet, it would say that a bear *bla bla bla something somthing* could kill 2, not that bears r bad just that the only difference is that we r just 2 over protective that dont show stuff that we think r inappropriate to the kids that we switch the truth around. at least the japanese ppl that made that product did switch the truth around. so net time u have so thing 2 say please think about it first before blaming others.