Japanese Suicide

Japan has long had a close relationship with suicide, both historically and in modern times. Reasons are thought to be honor and pressure, and as increasingly it's becoming apparent, as one person quoted in one of the articles below, it's not forbidden by law or religion in Japan. Things are going to a disturbing extreme, with people organizing and encouraging each other over the Internet, and finding easy, relatively non gruesome and painful ways to end their own lives.
Japan Detergent Suicide
Japanese Internet Suicide Clubs