How is toilet paper helping to reduce suicide in Japan?

Do you really know?

"Dear you, spending painful days pretending to be okay for someone else. You don't need to tell us everything... but how about just a little of it?" Imagine you’re in the bathroom at uni and you notice a message like that printed on the toilet roll. Pretty weird right?!

Well that’s exactly the situation students in the Yamanashi region of Japan found themselves in, when authorities rolled out their new suicide prevention initiative. That’s one example of the messages that were thought out by mental health specialists, and the toilet rolls also feature the number of a suicide prevention helpline and soothing images, like a cat playing with a ball or a young girl underneath an umbrella.

Why are they looking to help young people specifically? Are things worse in Japan than elsewhere in the world? What's the attitude towards mental health in Japan? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions !

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A Bababam Originals podcast, written and produced by Joseph Chance.

In partnership with upday UK.

1st broadcast : December 30, 2022

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