Strange Place: “Suicide Forest” Hosts 100 Suicides a Year

In Japan, there is a place where at least 100 people go to a year to kill themselves.

It is called Aokigahara Forest or “Suicide Forest.”

Tourists have traveled to this strange place to get the best view of a nearby mountain called Mount Fuji.With this good view comes other terrible views…of dead bodies, and this is why I call it a strange place. Remains of decayed bodies are sprawled all over the floor with their accessories ripped and torn by animals.

Some of these suicidal people decided to hang themselves from the trees, and their bodies stay there until authorities clear the forest  occasionally.

Visitors have described this forest to be one of the scariest places they have ever been to. As you walk through the forest, you are completely swallowed in darkness. Trees gape over you, letting streams of light sneak in that help direct you. The silence is supposedly “overwhelmingly terrifying.”

Supposedly, the reason why people commit suicide in the area stems from the 1960 novel, ‘Wave of Trees’ by Seicho Matsumoto. At some point in the book, the main character commits suicide in Aokigahara forest. Since the book was published, the rate of suicides in the forest (and Japan as a whole) has drastically increased.

People have blamed this book for influencing many Japanese people to commit suicide in this forest. They thought that it was a peaceful place to die, and it positively affected their spirits.

The increase reached a peak in 2004 when 108 people committed suicide in the forest.

As of now, Aokigahara is the second most popular suicide location, losing out  to the Golden Gate Bridge.

This bridge has the highest suicide rate in the entire world.

Signs have been put up at the entrance of the bridge to help reduce the suicide attempts. There is a number to a suicide hotline advertised on a small sign at the beginning of the bridge. I am pretty sure that most bridges in the United States have these signs at their entrance now.

Similarly, “Suicide Forest” uses the same strategy. Authorities have placed signs all over the forest with warnings saying “Please reconsider” and “Think carefully about your children, your family.”

Sadly, the signs have not decreased the suicide rate at all, and Aokigahara Forest remains to be the resting place of thousands of Suicidal people.

Aokigahara forest is one of the freakiest places in the world, and is an easy add to our strange place collection.

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