A man triggered panic in a northern Japanese city Thursday when he killed himself by mixing detergents in his house and released toxic fumes that drove 350 people from their homes, compounding a sudden wave of similar suicides.
Some 50 Japanese have reportedly killed themselves over the past month by mixing household chemicals to produce the deadly gas hydrogen sulfide. Police reacted by cracking down on popular suicide Web sites amid fears the deadly gas could endanger innocent bystanders or rescuers.
Hydrogen sulfide _ the latest in a series of suicide fads in Japan _ is even being used as a weapon. A farmer in a separate part of northern Japan was arrested Thursday for allegedly trying to kill his elderly mother with the gas, police said.
In Otaru on the northern island of Hokkaido, a 24-year-old man mixed the chemicals in his house after midnight. He died and the gas escaped his home. Neighbors were alerted by the smell, a Hokkaido police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
The man's 58-year-old mother, apparently overcome by the fumes, was found unconscious nearby and was taken to a hospital. Police said she was recovering. The neighbors fled to a nearby school playground where they stayed for about two hours.
The panic came a week after fumes sickened at least 90 people in a southwestern Japan apartment block where a teenage girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser in her bathroom.
On Wednesday, Japan's National Police Agency urged Internet providers to delete materials from Web sites showing readers how to mix the chemicals. Some sites reportedly provide "poison gas" warnings that viewers can print out and hang outside their doors when they kill themselves.
"Since April, the number of such Web sites has just jumped. They are rife on the Internet. Writing examples include 'you can die easily and beautifully,'" said Seiji Yoshikawa, deputy head of the Internet Hot Line, which reports suspect Internet sites to the police.
The police request was the first action against the detergent suicides taken by the Japanese government, which previously only released statistics on the deaths. Newspaper reports, however, say more than 50 people killed themselves this way in Japan in April.
Also Thursday, police in Kori in northern Japan arrested a farmer for allegedly trying to kill his 82-year-old mother with the same gas by mixing toilet cleaner with mothballs in a bucket.
The farmer, Nobuya Matsuno, was mixing the chemicals Wednesday when his 80-year-old father caught him and called the police, a Fukushima prefecture police spokesman said, also on condition of anonymity because of policy.
Hydrogen sulfide gas is colorless and characterized by an odor similar to that of rotten eggs. When inhaled, it can lead to suffocation or brain damage.
"What's making the problem so grave is that rescuers and neighbors could be seriously affected," the Asahi newspaper said in Thursday's editorial. "Considering the seriousness of the issue, we cannot waste any time in launching preventive measures."
Japan, with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, has battled a series of suicide fads over the years. Until this year, many cases involved victims who found each other on the Internet and committed suicide together, often by sealing themselves in a car and lighting a charcoal-burning brazier.
Annual suicides in Japan passed the 30,000 mark in 1998, and a total of 32,155 people killed themselves in 2006, giving the country the ninth highest suicide rate in the world, according to the government.
The government has earmarked US$220 million (euro141 million) for anti-suicide programs to help those with depression and other mental conditions.
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