Suicidal Japanese bloggers and message board users were dissuaded by member of the Japanese Police Agency today. 121 different people, all strangers to each other, had been in contact to assist one another in the process of ending it all. Of the 121, 72 were located and did no harm to themselves, 16 couldn’t be found and the rest were assumed to be either hoaxes or not interested in fulfilling their online messages of suicide.

In 2006, 44 Japanese citizens posted their intentions online and either followed through or were dissuaded. Japan has a very high rate of suicide, annually, about 30,000 people kill themselves. Source.

— Bryan Applegate