Close, personal contact -- involving peers whenever possible -- is the key to preventing suicide, experts agreed Tuesday.

Participants at a three-day conference on suicide prevention getting under way in Tokyo gave presentations focusing on methods used to combat suicide in Britain, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Finland and Sri Lanka.

Views submitted at the event, sponsored by the nonprofit organization Befrienders International Suicide Prevention Center Tokyo, may provide clues to tackling the issue in nations with a high suicide rate.

The latter include Japan, which has seen more than 30,000 suicides annually for the last five years.

Brian L. Mishara of Quebec University has studied a group of 137 men viewed as high-risk suicide cases.

He observed that programs involving telephone contact and face-to-face meetings were effective in curbing suicidal impulses, with the number of men viewed as being extremely high-risk cases falling from 97 to 45 within four months.

After six months, the figure had fallen to 17.

"While there are often more men than women who commit suicide in many countries, men tend to refuse to call for help," he said. "But the results show that a personal approach and emotional support, especially by calling, were effective."

Meanwhile, Han Sang Yup, director of the South Korean branch of Befrienders International, said that volunteers at his 24-hour telephone counseling service are trained to keep suicidal callers on the line and deal with them calmly, as they often just need someone to feel close to.

"The pains of the heart are not caused by the problem itself, but by the caller reproaching himself for not coping," Yup said. "If the supporter accepts him, he will stop doing so and the pain will disappear."

Many participants said that peer power is an important factor in curbing suicide attempts.

Since 1998, the charity organization Samaritans Hong Kong has held a yearly peer-briefing seminar for high school students, who are sometimes viewed as being prone to depression due to exam pressure and problems linked with adolescence.

According to a report compiled by the organization, two students are invited from each school every year to participate in workshops in which they learn about the causes of depression and suicide.

They also learn about measures aimed at tackling the problem and participate in a weeklong course in which they learn how to overcome fear.

After they return, they teach their peers the lessons they have learned.

This process has increased public awareness of the problem, the report says.

Meanwhile, Simon Armson of Samaritans U.K. said that to prevent prison suicides, appointing and training "listeners," or volunteer inmates, to provide emotional support to their peers is effective.

While the Samaritans also frequent prisons, the volunteers are there all the time, whenever help is needed, he said.

"The prisoners can also be more open, because the volunteers are not from the 'establishment,' " he said.