Sublunary Sons

Japanese are still dying peculiar deaths.

In Tochigi Prefecture, 53-year-old Motoichi Morita defeated an old friend for election to the Akazawa village assembly. By way of apology he promptly hanged himself.

In Tanimura last week, depressed over the failure of a candidate he backed in a local election, Taniyuki Shimura killed himself by biting off his tongue. In crime-ridden Tokyo, 24-year-old Kan Arai threw himself under a railroad train, "because by becoming a policeman I have discovered the corruption and dishonesty of sublunary affairs. It is useless to be a policeman in such a world."

For one reason or another, announced the Ministry for Home Affairs and Transport, 1,241 other Japanese had attempted suicide by the same method during the last year; 970 were successful.

In Tokyo, 29-year-old Genzo Kuriyama, ex-paratrooper, faced bankruptcy last month. He jumped 82 feet down a bathhouse chimney. Police reported that soft soot at the chimney's base and "past rigorous training as a paratrooper" prevented completion of his mission.

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