The Yamanashi Dental Association has for six years been pushing a program in which identification tape is attached to false teeth to make it easier to confirm who committed suicide in a local forest.
The association began the project in February 2000 to identify bodies found in the dense Aokigahara forest at the foot of Mount Fuji, where many people commit suicide. The group felt that identification could be made more quickly if people had their names and prefecture codes attached to any false teeth they had.
Between 2000 and last March, Yamanashi dentists have put 1.5 × 4 mm transparent tapes on the false teeth of 5,380 people, each containing the person's name and prefecture number.
The project has been supported by about 50 dental facilities in Yamanashi Prefecture. The cost of the procedure is covered by the association.