For our Intimacy issue, writer Jason Johnson explored the world of Love Plus+ and Japanese suicide. New Hampshire Public Radio brought Jason on to talk about the issue.

In 2009, the Japanese government reported more than thirty thousand suicides, though the World Health Organization puts the number closer to 100,000 given the narrow definition of suicide used by Japanese authorities. Factors in the epidemic include a high rate of unemployment, rising rates of depression among young people, and a cultural tolerance of suicide. In 2007, the suicide of Toshikatsu Matsuoka, a cabinet minister being investigated for financial wrongdoing earned him the designation of True Samurai by the governor of Tokyo.

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