“Protect all life” is the theme chosen for Pope Francis’ apostolic visit to Japan next November 23 to 26. It’s a key-theme in many respects: Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world (30-35,000 every year), especially among young people. The “hikikomori” phenomenon – social withdrawal syndrome – emerged here, affecting over 500,000 youths. The reflections of PIME’s missionary, Father Andrea Lembo, from Tokyo
(from Tokyo) – In Japan, the friendship between a young “hikimori” and an Italian priest can save a life. It happened to Father Andrea Lembo, 45, from Treviglio (Bergamo), PIME Superior General, in Tokyo for the past ten years. The missionary is fluent in Japanese as he is in Italian, and talks about his intense days with great enthusiasm. In his beloved land of mission, which he dreamt of long before his departure, Father Andrea met a people to be evangelized and experienced its shadows. Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world (one every 15 minutes, 30-35,000 a year despite government prevention campaigns). Safety barriers are often seen in the busiest subway stations in Tokyo – stations occupy a central place in Japan’s everyday life – to prevent people from throwing themselves on the tracks.
“Sadly, the numbers have decreased along with age group – now involving 12 year-olds” – said the missionary – “I learned that there are teachers who read notices of this kind in class: ‘if you choose to commit suicide, you should avoid certain trains and hours’. The government is even imposing fines on the families of persons who commit suicide because they delay public service. This is unacceptable in the world’s most high-tech and efficient megalopolis of 30 million inhabitants, with 28 subways and flawless urban trains. “No family is immune to this of tragedy”, said the missionary.
“Hikikomori”, withdrawn from the world. The “hikikomori” phenomenon – describing the condition of youths who isolate themselves from society shutting themselves up in their rooms with the Internet as the only contact with the outside world – first emerged in Japan.
It is estimated that in the Country there are 500 thousand hikikomori – on a population of 127 million. And this sad trend is spreading also in Italy.
They are often victims of bullying, teenagers unable to cope with school failures, with difficulties connected to finding a job or to being fired. From early school years to business, the average Japanese citizen has high expectations, with extremely stressful work and study patterns. They go to school every day of the week, with a 12-hour workday and a few days off. It is no coincidence that in the subways, where it is absolutely forbidden to use a mobile phone, almost everyone sleeps, even standing. An almost maniacal anxiety for perfection, coupled by a formal courtesy that shuts off emotions, make these people often incapable of managing crises and failures, viewed as a shame.
Sometimes isolation and depression are a short step from suicide.
This subject is in perfect accord with the theme of Pope Francis’ visit to Japan from 23 to 26 November: “Protecting all life.”
A priest as a friend
“Youths here know nothing about priests. We explain that priests are those who understand all things felt with the heart”,
said Father Andrea describing his meetings with young people at dinner, over sushi and a beer. Father Andrea met twenty-year-old Ko He in his first parish church on the outskirts of Tokyo. In his second year at university Ko He decided to quit his studies, leave his family and rent a booth at an internet café at 500 yen a day (about 4 Euros) to withdraw from the world. Father Andrea learned that his only outdoor activities involved prostitution with other boys, the only way he could pay for his own self-reclusion. “He was exploited and humiliated during some stupid ‘Love parties’. He was on the verge of committing suicide,” remarked Fr Andrea: “To persuade him to stop, I made him understand that I and his family did not deserve to suffer because he wanted to take his own life.”
“A very beautiful friendship was born and after two years I managed to make him leave the Internet Cafe. Now he helps me as a volunteer in the parish and is working in a home for the elderly.”
Invisible poverties. There are 800 Catholics registered in his small parish, the only Catholic church in Fuchu, an affluent area of Tokyo where poverty is unseen.
Inner poverties are the most burdensome, also because people don’t have the habit of consulting a psychoanalyst.
In some cases they see a psychiatrist, who treats them with psychoactive drugs: “Mothers remind the teachers to remember the pills for their six or seven-year-old children, because they must be perfect”. “Heart treatment” centres with voluntary psychologists have only just been created.
“Having to deal with juvenile suicides is a great burden to me”, he admitted. “Every time it happens, we need to reprocess what happened internally, we feel the failure of our efforts.” A Japanese priest who had experienced this kind of loss in his family once told to him: “You cannot understand because you are a foreigner.” Suicide in Japan originates from an ancient custom of warriors defeated in battle, which is probably why it is still culturally and socially accepted. “They say that it’ s a way to free oneself from a hellish life that, with modernity and stressful work schedules, is forcibly subjected to excessive social pressure – the missionary explained -. In a society based on Confucianism, where the individual is at the service of the community, it means removing discomfort from the world, no longer being a burden to others.”
The choice for the future. Another feature of Japanese society is the tendency to want children to choose their educational and professional future at a very young age, when they are 10 years-old.
“Young people should have the freedom to decide their own paths”,
is the advice of Yumi Takahashi, teacher and founder of the “School of Joy”, the parish after-school program that every Saturday assists children who cannot afford to pay for this type of education. “I hope that the visit of Pope Francis will have a positive impact not only on Catholics but on all young people, even those who still don’t know him – the teacher said -. He is a man of peace, he can help them to broaden their horizons on the whole world and become involved in the problems of society.”
