Nine young people die in suicide pacts
They also discovered the bodies of two women in an apparent suicide pact in a car at a temple.
The cases - involving young people in their teens and 20s - raised alarm over suicide agreements, many of which are made by people who meet over the internet. They have claimed dozens of lives and shocked Japan over the past several years.
Yesterday’s suicide of four men and three women in the van would be the largest group suicide yet, the National Police Agency said.
Police found the rented van in a deserted mountain car park after a friend of one of the seven who had received an email hinting at suicide called the police, but officers failed to reach it in time, said a spokesman.
The van windows were sealed with vinyl tape from the inside and the seven were found slumped over in their seats, the spokesman said. A woman sat in the driver’s seat, while the six others sat in two rows behind her.
No external wounds or signs of a struggle were found.
Police said they believed the seven died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In a second incident, two women were found dead in a car parked outside an isolated temple in Yokosuka, 60 miles to the south-east. They were in the car’s back seat. The car windows were sealed with black plastic.
Police said the two cases had striking similarities.
Evidence of a failed October 4 joint suicide attempt by two of the women - one from each vehicle - have led investigators to believe the latest suicides had been planned together.
Officials say suicide pacts have been made over the internet since at least the late 1990s, and have been reported everywhere from Guam to the Netherlands.
But they’ve been happening in Japan in especially large numbers, where suicide in general is at record highs.
According to the National Police Agency, 45 people committed suicide in groups after meeting each other over the internet between January 2003 and June 2004.
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