This brief article presents crude suicide rates from Japan 1910-72. After World War II, it rose, then fell abruptly & rose in the early 1970s. The author also asserts that Mishima’s Harakiri’s suicide promoted suicide in youth. A survey reveals that Japanese youth are mostly solitary & nihilistic compared to the youth of 10 other nations. This may be why they are strongly sensitized to suicide. (KM)