Love-pact suicides in Japan are examined in this article. Japanese scholars have hypothesized that certain characteristic norms & values underlie this practice & the current authors suggest that these same values contribute to the Japanese people’s interest in literature containing accounts of love-pact suicide. Some literary examples are provided; however, the bulk of the article discusses modern cases. Over the period, 1946-1960, 3.6% of suicides (474 incidents) in Japan involved love-pacts. (5 refs.)