Nearly two weeks after a man was arrested for killing and cutting up nine people, Japan has vowed a concerted response against „suicide websites“..
Nearly two weeks after a man was arrested for killing and cutting up nine people, Japan has vowed a concerted response against „suicide websites“.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, who was nabbed on Oct 31, has confessed to preying on victims who expressed suicidal thoughts on social networking site Twitter, luring them with suicide pacts to die together.
But he reneged on the pacts, killing and dismembering his victims whom he found using the hashtag „suicide recruitment“. Nine heads and 240 bones belonging to his nine victims – eight females and one male aged between 15 and 26 – were found in his Kanagawa apartment on Halloween.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday that specific steps on clamping down on websites and social media sites that propagate suicide content will be announced next month.
„The use of Twitter – a social networking site that is difficult to monitor – to exploit the cries for help by victims who wrote about committing suicide is despicable,“ he said. „We will get to the bottom of this crime, and work towards preventing its re-occurrence.“
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Seiko Noda, in noting that 50 per cent of junior high and 90 per cent of senior high students own smartphones, stressed that utmost efforts will be made to plug any loopholes in Internet regulations.
