Tokyo interfaith panel eyes new suicide views

Japan,
which has one of the highest suicide rates among developed countries,
is increasingly using the term for "voluntary death" instead of "killing
oneself."

Indeed, Roman Catholic Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of
Tokyo, says he has approved of the term "voluntary death," noting that
"since the church had taught for a long time that suicide is a sin, we
had not held funerals for suicides."

An interfaith symposium in
Tokyo, sponsored by the Catholic Bishops Conference in Japan, explored
on October 29 the shifting attitudes of Japanese religious communities
on suicide, including whether the term should be changed to "voluntary
death." The symposium was titled "The Mission of Religionists on
Voluntary Death."