Retired Japanese man who saved over 500 from suicide to be featured in documentary

[yuiyoshida]

TOKYO —

It’s no secret that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. There are even popular “suicide spots” within Japan where many people go every year to end their lives. One such area is Tojinbo in Fukui Prefecture, where the tall seaside cliffs overlook the ocean, and as many as 100 people every year choose to fall to their deaths.

However, that number has been declining in recent years, thanks to Yukio Shige, a 70-year-old retired police officer. He has made it his personal duty to patrol the area and talk to anyone who looks like they may want to jump over the cliffs, and he’s saved over 500 lives in the 11 years he’s been acting as personal seaside lifeguard.

And now he has a new role: the star of the movie that’s being made about his life.

During his last year as a police officer, Shige was assigned to work in Tojinbo. He was appalled by the number of bodies he had to fish out from the ocean beneath the cliffs, not to mention the authorities’ coldness in handling the suicide cases. After retirement in 2004 he stayed in Tojinbo, making it his mission to talk to the people he saw hovering near the edge of the cliffs and listening to what they had to say.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/retired-japanese-man-who-saved-over-500-from-suicide-to-be-featured-in-documentary

[Mnemosyne]

1. This is what a caring human being looks like... nt