Called âthe perfect place to die,â the Aokigahara forest has the unfortunate distinction as the worldâs second most popular place to take oneâs life. (The first is the Golden Gate Bridge.) Since the 1950s, Japanese businessmen have wandered in, and at least 500 of them havenât wandered out, at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 per year. Recently these numbers have increased even more, with a record 78 suicides in 2002.
Japanese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigaharaâs trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forestâs depths. Complicating matters further is the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the areaâs volcanic soil.
Due to the vastness of the forest, desperate visitors are unlikely to encounter anyone once inside the so-called âSea of Trees,â so the police have mounted signs reading âYour life is a precious gift from your parents,â and âPlease consult the police before you decide to die!â on trees throughout.
Contemporary news outlets noted the recent spike in suicides in the forest, blamed more on Japanâs economic downturn than on the romantic ending of Seicho Matsumotoâs novel Kuroi Jukai, which revitalized the so-called Suicide Forestâs popularity among those determined to take their final walk. (The novel culminates in Aokigahara as the characters are driven to joint-suicide.)
Locals say they can easily spot the three types of visitors to the forest: trekkers interested in scenic vistas of Mount Fuji, the curious hoping for a glimpse of the macabre, and those souls who donât plan on returning.
What those hoping to take their lives may not consider is the impact the suicides have on the locals and forest workers. In the words of one local man, âIt bugs the hell out of me that the areaâs famous for being a suicide spot.â And a local police officer said, âIâve seen plenty of bodies that have been really badly decomposed, or been picked at by wild animals⌠Thereâs nothing beautiful about dying in there.â
The forest workers have it even worse than the police. The workers must carry the bodies down from the forest to the local station, where the bodies are put in a special room used specifically to house suicide corpses. The forest workers then play jan-ken-ponâwhich English-speakers call rock, paper, scissorsâto see who has to sleep in the room with the corpse.
It is believed that if the corpse is left alone, it is very bad luck for the yurei (ghost) of the suicide victims. Their spirits are said to scream through the night, and their bodies will move on their own.