Dead Man Talking: Legislator Shokei Arai at a February news conference discussing allegations that he had engaged in insider trading. Arai hanged himself the following day.

A Nation on Suicide Watch
Economic woes and financial scandals cause some Japanese to consider the samurai's way out

IF SHAME occupied the same place in American culture that it does in Japan, Washington, D.C., would be Suicide City. The hara-kiri of a Japanese Finance Ministry official this week after he was questioned by officials investigating bribery is simply the latest indication that the spectre of public disgrace still compels men of power in Japan to take the way of the samurai.

"Centuries ago, a samurai would take his life to preserve honor in the face of defeat," says TIME Tokyo bureau chief Frank Gibney, Jr. "These days, in the face of a sinking economy and a wave of public scandals, Japanese are once again turning to suicide, this time as a way of apologizing without explaining."

The statistics are alarming: (continued)