第49回 全国大会結果

大学の部 優勝
間崎 護(高知大学)

An Ideal Future for Japan

 An ideal Future for Japan. It's a big theme. Honestly, I didn't know what to talk about at first. I don't know what an ideal future is. What I do know is that current situation is far away from an ideal one. Today I hope my speech will be a little step forward to an ideal future for Japan. Do you know how much potential is being lost? Do you know how many amazing lives are being taken away by suicide every year? It is 24,000. However, according to the ministry of health, almost 70% of the population think that the problem of suicide is not relevant to them. That might be because there is a big gap between people who are affected by the problem of suicide and those who are not. Actually, statistics showed that those who have lost someone close to them by suicide are more likely to try to commit suicide than those who haven't. Considering these statistics, we could say that suicide is really a contagious problem like any other infectious disease, but there is no specific cure. Today I'd like to share my idea on how to confront and reduce suicide.
 First let me tell you one story. This is about a boy who tried to commit suicide. At that time, his family was not doing very well. His brother had failed his college exams for 5 years. His sister flunked out of private university, had car accident and broke up with her boyfriend, whom she was about to marry. And his parents were gradually becoming unable to afford many things. They were almost bankrupt financially, and broken mentally. The boy had nowhere like a mental shelter to go and had nobody to talk to. One day, he stood up on his chair in his room, and tied a rope around his neck. It is so easy for people to say "Don't be so hard on yourself. You are not alone. You have to help each other as one family, sharing your sadness." That's true. That's so true. Anybody would say so unless they were in that situation. He was just an elementary student then. Most adults might say "That's a child thing. Children sometimes hurt themselves to attract adults' attention." But I think it was a childish call for help in this case. He was so serious that he calculated how long it was going to take to be found by parents to make sure he was not going to make it. And I've never told this story before because this is my story. This is my first time to confess it in public or in private.
 Besides my experience, almost 12% of all deaths by suicide are teenagers and people in their twenties. You might think that suicide is an adults' problem but it's not. We need to start education about suicide from an early stage such as elementary school to deal with a problem of suicide when people face one. At high school, teachers often tell students to ask for help when they are in trouble and there is often paper on a wall saying "You are not alone. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx" by some kind of organization to prevent suicide. But It's too late! We need to help people at an early stage. The suicidal rate of the youth under 30 is increasing year by year according to national police agency. It is too late to start learning swimming after you start drowning.
 Now we don't have enough opportunities even to talk about suicide. I know suicide is a really sensitive topic but still we need more opportunities. As we grow up, we tend to think that suicide makes everyone sad and we shouldn't try it or even talk about it. That's a normal reaction. But you don't have to be normal when you are in an abnormal situation. The first step is accepting that we all have difficulties, some more than others and many people have had suicide thoughts. Let's learn to be a little more vulnerable and less concerned with normal.
 So, I hope you will agree that talking about suicide is important. But how do we talk to someone who is suicidal?
 Now I am a medical student, and my instinct is to give perfect answers to solve individual problems and prevent suicide, but that's impossible. Rather we should not try to solve their problems because if we do so, we will hesitate even to listen to them. We don't have to say anything special, all we have to do is just listen to them. They want to be heard. Actually 32% of those who tried to commit suicide were saved because someone close helped them by just listening to them. And sadly, it is also true that it is only 30% who would listen to a suicidal person carefully when they face him. We need more listeners.
 I know it is scary to talk about suicide, because most people don't want to even think about losing someone important. But to me it is even more scary to regret that we could’ve done more to help someone. Now in Japan, one in four of us has actually attempted suicide. That could be your friend, a member of your family, or the person next to you right now. There is no insurance that you won't get involved. Suicide is not only the victim's problem, but it affects many people. Please don't be afraid to talk about death to save lives. Thank you.