Mental illness, as Kazuhiro Soda notes in his documentary "Seishin" ("Mental"), is one of the big taboos of Japanese society.
In the United States, doctors prescribe psychotropic drugs as commonly as cold tablets and memorists detail their breakdowns and addictions in best-selling books. In Japan, however, the mentally ill often try to hide their condition from employers, family and friends, while seeking treatment only as a last resort.
They fear, rightly in many cases, the stigma of being labeled "weak," "strange" or "crazy" in a conformist society with a culture of shame. Suicide starts to look like the only, tacitly approved, way out.