Home / Series / VICE Specials (Web) / Aired Order / Season 2012 / Episode 11

Suicide Forest in Japan

The Aokigahara Forest is the most popular site for suicides in Japan. After the novel Kuroi Jukai was published, in which a young lover commits suicide in the forest, people started taking their own lives there at a rate of 50 to 100 deaths a year. The site holds so many bodies that the Yakuza pays homeless people to sneak into the forest and rob the corpses. The authorities sweep for bodies only on an annual basis, as the forest sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is too dense to patrol more frequently.

English
  • Originally Aired May 9, 2012
  • Runtime 21 minutes
  • Network YouTube
  • Production Company VICE Media
  • Created March 3, 2026 by
    AddingStuffIsFun
  • Modified March 3, 2026 by
    AddingStuffIsFun