Watch: The ‘suicide forest’ in Japan is as eerie as it looks
You can check out any time you like, but you can (probably) never leave.
Mt Fuji erupted in the year 864 and gave birth to a “sea of trees” over its dried lava. This dense, green, sprawling 30 square kilometre forest of moss, vines and ominous looking trees in Japan is called Aokigahara or, more infamously, “Suicide Forest”.
The uneven ground, overhung vines, and the maze of trails make it sound a lot like Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest or the haunted forest from Snow White, but this real-life forest is even more foreboding. Over the past half century, people from Japan have been making frequent one-way trips to the forest to end their lives.
The forest, also called Jukai (sea of trees) is Japan’s most popular spot for suicides, and the second most popular in the world after San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge.
Signs of the ordeals are visible everywhere – deserted cars in the parking lot, nooses hanging from trees, bottles of pills accompanying the person’s belongings and, worse, actual corpses and fully-clothed skeletons. A more curious phenomenon in the forest is rows of coloured tape or ribbon fastened between trees – since the lava in the soil interferes with the usage of compasses, GPS and cellphones, those undetermined about committing suicide leave these trails to help them find their way back if they decide against it.
In 2004, the number of suicides in the forest peaked at 108. The local authorities decided to stop making the figure public to avoid glorifying the practice, and yet there were 247 suicide attempts in 2010 alone. To tackle and minimise the problem, the Suicide Prevention Association has placed signs and messages in the area to prevent suicide and assist those contemplating the idea.
The problem, however, is widespread across Japan – more than 30,000 commit suicide in the country every year. In Japan’s feudal era, seppuku (ritual self-disembowelment) was considered one of the most honourable feats. Even today, suicide is not considered sinful or illegal in Japan.
The forest’s “popularity” as a suicide spot stems from various factors. A local legend claims that people would abandon ill or old relatives in the forest, a practice called ubasute. The most plausinle reasons, though, appear to be literary – Seicho Matsumoto’s 1960 novel, Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees) featured two lovers kill themselves in the forest in the end, and The Complete Manual of Suicide by Watary Tsurumi called the forest the perfect place to die.
The creepily alluring quality of the forest has made it a popular subject in Hollywood – there are already three films set in this forest, including the Matthew McConaughey starrer The Sea of Trees – and a documentary titled Suicide Forest (below), which follows Azusa Hayano, a geologist who works in the area of environmental protection at the forest. (Warning: graphic images)