This video comes with a mature con­tent warn­ing, but you prob­a­bly knew that from the sub­ject line. (Begins with 15 sec­ond ad)

The Aoki­ga­hara For­est is the most pop­u­lar site for sui­cides in Japan. After the novel Kuroi Jukai was pub­lished, in which a young lover com­mits sui­cide in the for­est, peo­ple started tak­ing their own lives there at a rate of 50 to 100 deaths a year. The site holds so many bod­ies that the Yakuza pays home­less peo­ple to sneak into the for­est and rob the corpses. The author­i­ties sweep for bod­ies only on an annual basis, as the for­est sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is too dense to patrol more frequently

Japan has one of the world’s high­est sui­cide rates, with soci­etal expec­ta­tions and the pres­sures of high den­sity, high pace liv­ing often given as rea­sons. Park ranger and geol­o­gist, Azusa Hayano, serves as an impromptu coun­selor on his patrols of the region. “I was curi­ous as to why peo­ple kill them­selves in such a beau­ti­ful for­est. I still haven’t found the answer to that.”

Japan really needs to hear the gospel — God’s revealed him­self in cre­ation, but as Romans 10:14 puts it, “how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear with­out some­one preach­ing?” (ESV) Pray that the word of life goes out in Japan and many peo­ple are saved from sui­cide and also an eter­nity apart from God!

• Mis­sion Japan
• Japan — The Joshua Project
• OMF Japan
• CMS Pro­file: Japan