A Buddhist monk confronts Japan’s suicide culture (2013)
<i>By tradition, suicide can absolve guilt and cancel debt, can restore honor and prove loyalty.</i><p>In this respect I feel Japan's culture is superior to ours in the USA. For example, I felt Mark Madoff's suicide was entirely appropriate, a final act that put the rest of his life in a more dignified context. Yet every article one reads about it treats the suicide as an additional disgrace, yet another horrible thing we can blame on Mark and his father.