ST Feb 6, 2005
Nine Japanese die in latest charcoal-burner group suicides

TOKYO - NINE people were found dead in two cars outside Tokyo yesterday in what were believed to be the latest in a series of suicide pacts involving charcoal burners in the country.

Six people - three men and two women, mostly in their 20s, and one 40-year-old woman - were found in the morning in a rented minivan, police said.

The vehicle was parked along a farm road on the scenic peninsula of Miura at the mouth of Tokyo Bay.

Hours later, the bodies of one man and two women, in their 30s and 40s, were found in a rented sedan on the grounds of an empty villa in Higashi Izu, some 100km south-west of Tokyo.

It was not immediately clear if the two cases were related. The vehicles were about 100km apart.

Police found several charcoal burners inside the two vehicles.

There has been a spate of group suicides using traditional terracotta charcoal burners in Japan.

Many of the suicides involved strangers who met over the Internet and agreed to die together.

The charcoal burner is rarely used in Japan except at traditional-style Japanese or Korean restaurants.

Nearly 50 people have died in similar suicides since early October last year. -- AFP

haizz......ending ur lives.....have life become so unbearable???? when do u decide u 1 2 die????have u ever considered how lucky u r 2 b alive???? how many r struggle 2 b alive.....how do i tell u tt life can b wonderful???? when u hit a rough spot, can u see beyond tt.....tt there is a paradise smewhere....a paradise where u r still living in.....a paradise where many hope 4 but never got a chance 2......it's tough 2 b down....who doesn't hit a rough time.......