A wave of high-profile suicides has gripped Japan. Most have occurred in the troubled world of corporate Japan, but the most shocking has been that of a rock star whose funeral in Tokyo yesterday drew tens of thousands of mourning fans.
Just why Hideto Matsumoto (33), lead guitarist for the rock group X Japan, took his own life is a mystery. He hanged himself in his Tokyo apartment without leaving a note.
But the effect has been near hysteria among young followers, already distressed by the break-up of the hugely popular band after a final concert on New Year's Eve.
The group's members favoured heavy make-up and extreme hairstyles and at his funeral in a Tokyo temple, where a line of electric guitars flanked his portrait, many of the 20,000 or more mourners had their hair dyed in bright colours.
The death of the rock star has inspired copycat suicide attempts. One 14-year-old died after hanging herself, and another fan who leaped from a bridge is in a critical condition. A mourner died in a car crash on the way to the funeral.
In the latest suicide in the business and finance world, a 27-yearold senior official of Japan's Ministry of Finance hanged himself in a ministry dormitory late on Wednesday evening. Koji Onishi left a note addressed to his parents saying: "I decided this myself. This is a suicide. Please live a long time."
Two other employees of the powerful ministry hanged themselves this year after being named in scandals but Mr Onishi had not been questioned.
Last weekend the nation was stunned by the suicide of Takayuki Kamoshida (58), an executive director of the Bank of Japan who had featured prominently in the media for his central role in investigating colleagues who had taken entertainment from clients in return for inside information. He left a note saying "I can't go on any longer."
In Japan ritual suicide is woven into the country's culture as an escape from shame or as a personal protest, and there have been regular suicides linked to the country's financial crisis. Recently three businessmen checked into the same motel and each took a room where he hanged himself.
In one of the most public suicides, Seiichi Tanigashira (40), an employee of a firm affiliated with the failed Yamaichi brokerage, killed himself by jumping off a building in Osaka in full view of horrified commuters.
Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand have also suffered a rash of suicides connected with the Asian economic collapse. In South Korea, a Confucian society which equates failure with dishonour, the epidemic has been particularly severe, with at least one South Korean businessman committing suicide every day, according to a recent survey by the Korean Federation of Small Business.
Russia said yesterday it would not make any concessions to Tokyo over four disputed Pacific islands off northern Japan seized at the end of the second World War.
A Kremlin spokesman, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, speaking after a fresh round of talks between Russia and Japan on a second World War peace treaty, said Russia was economically too weak at present to cede territory. Mr Yastrzhembsky visited the islands last month after accompanying President Boris Yeltsin on a trip to Japan.
"By all the political rules Russia is categorically forbidden to discuss and decide questions of territorial demarcation with Japan or any other country," he told Mayak radio station. "Now Russia is not in the best condition. Only a strong state can settle territorial disputes. If this is not the case, giving something away will set off a domino effect," he said.
Moscow's seizure of the islands has long hampered relations between the two nations.