On the verge of the new millennium, Japanese society began to experience noticeable fissures and discontinuities that belied its image as a cohesive and universally middle-class nation. The Spring of 1998 witnessed a sudden jump in suicides that remained unabated until some fifteen years later and marks what is called the “Era of 30,000 suicides”. In the early years of this pandemic, Buddhist priests from a variety of regions and backgrounds began taking on the problem from their own individual standpoints. By 2008, the first cooperative, trans-sectarian body called the Association of Priests Grappling with the Suicide Problem (jisatsu taisaku-ni torikumu soryo-no-kai 自殺対策に取り組む僧侶の会) formed in the Tokyo area, followed by similar groups throughout the rest of the country. And so a movement began to form in the critical shift of individual activists working in isolation to a coordinated effort in group form to confront this issue. The priests and nuns in this movement have not only caught the sympathetic attention of domestic press but have drawn interest from those overseas, leading to the 1st 1st International Conference on Buddhism, Suicide Prevention, and Psycho-Spiritual Counseling called Re-Awakening to Our Inter-connected World. It is from these origins that IBCC has grown into an international network.
- Zen in the Mettaverse: How a 400-Year-Old Buddhist Temple is Evolving in Response to Modern Japanese Suffering by Dexter Cohen Bohn July 27, 2023
- Suicide Prevention in South Korea: The 2nd Life Respect Day Celebration and Policy Seminar March 25, 2022
- The Warmth of Connection: A Buddhist Path to the Realization of Healing 2nd Stage: International Roundtable on Buddhist Psychology, Psycho-Spiritual Counseling, and Chaplaincy Training (Bangkok, Thailand March 12-15, 2019)
- Re-Awakening to Our Inter-connected World: 1st Stage: International Conference on Buddhism, Suicide Prevention, and Psycho-Spiritual Counseling (Yokohama & Kyoto, Japan November 6-10, 2017; Conference report August, 2018)
- This Man Can Rescue You From “Death by Overwork” : short film about Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto on use of meditation and Buddhism to confront suicide and to face death (Unlimited powered by UBS Sep 12, 2017) contact us for a copy
- The Departure : full length documentary on the life and work of Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto by Lana Wilson (May 2017)
- Journey Through Dukkha: The Suicide Prevention Priests of Japan Enter into Structural Violence and Connect to Social Change (April 15, 2014)
- LAST CALL: A Buddhist monk confronts Japan’s suicide culture (Profile of Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto in The New Yorker Magazine June 24, 2013)
- From a Disconnected Society to an Interconnected Society Rev. Toshihide Shun’ei Hakamata published in The Eastern Buddhist 44/2: 77–94 (2013)
- 2013 Outlook: The Present Situation and the Coming Future of the Suicide Problem by Rev. Yukan Ogawa (Bukkyo Times January 31, 2013)
- Reconstructing Priestly Identity and Roles in Contemporary Japan and the Development of Socially Engaged Buddhism by Jonathan Watts & Rev. Masazumi Okano (2012)
