日本志愿者用善良和麻糬拯救轻生者

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阻止跳崖

Japanese volunteers curb suicide, with kindness and pancakes
日本志愿者用善良和麻糬拯救轻生者

Gradually, governments are beginning to provide some support
日本政府开始逐渐提供一些支持

Nov 22nd 2018 | TOJINBO
2018年11月22日 | 东寻坊

WEARING A WHITE surgical mask hiding half her face, a young woman walks into a suicide-prevention centre by the Tojinbo cliffs. She has been crying. Yukio Shige and Misako Kawagoe swing into a practised routine. They greet her at once; Mr Shige lets a shelter know that a guest will be staying for a couple of nights; Ms Kawagoe readies rice pancakes with grated radish—oroshi mochi—a local speciality.
一名被白色外科口罩遮住半张脸的年轻女子走进了东寻坊悬崖边上的一家自杀预防中心。她一直哭个不停。由纪夫志下（Yukio Shige）和河谷美佐子（Misako Kawagoe）随后迅速开始了例行公事：即刻招待这名女子。由纪夫志下通知招待所有一名客人需要住宿数晚；河谷美佐子准备当地的特色美食酱拌麻糬（加萝卜泥的糯米团）。

For the past 14 years these two have taken turns from morning to night to patrol Tojinbo—sheer, jagged cliffs near a sleepy Japanese resort, Mikuni. Sometimes, they encounter people who have overdosed on pills before a planned jump. Or they spot people carrying ropes, to hang themselves from the cliffs. Mr Shige and Ms Kawagoe bring potential jumpers back from the edge—640 of them so far. They have helped to reduce the number of suicides at Tojinbo from about 26 a year at the beginning of the century to fewer than ten.
在过去的14年里，由纪夫志下和河谷美佐子从早到晚在东寻坊参差不齐的悬崖峭壁边轮流巡逻。这些悬崖峭壁位于日本境内寂静的三国（Mikuni）度假胜地附近。他们遇到的轻生者，有时是在预谋跳崖前过量吞药，有时是带着绳子企图从悬崖上吊死。截至目前，由纪夫志下和河谷美佐子已从悬崖边上阻止了640名轻生者自寻短见。在他们的帮助下，东寻坊的自杀人数从本世纪初的每年26人下降到每年少于10人。

Mr Shige rescued his first potential suicides before he retired from his job as a policeman: an elderly couple whose hotel business had failed, forcing them into debt and to sell their home. Recent encounters include a man who lost his job when his employer discovered he was HIV positive. About 70% of the centre’s visitors are men. Most are driven to contemplate suicide by family or work problems or bullying.
在从警察岗位上退休之前，由纪夫志下救下首例将要轻生的人员是一对老年夫妇——酒店生意上的失败迫使他们背负债务，卖掉房屋。最近，在被发现的轻生者中，有一名男子是因为被雇主发现患有艾滋病后失去了工作，所以自寻短见。这家自杀预防中心的顾客有70%是男性。其中大多数人是被各种家庭问题，工作问题或霸凌逼得想要一死了之。

Around the world, volunteer groups such as the Samaritans try to curb suicide by providing a listening ear. Such initiatives help push down suicide rates. But they tend, initially, to receive little or no government support. “Politicians thought that suicide was a personal problem,” says Mr Shige. For the first few years after he left the police, he and Ms Kawagoe paid for the suicide-prevention centre they founded from their own pockets. They even rented apartments as shelters. To make ends meet, Ms Kawagoe would work at the centre in the day, and clean bathtubs in a nearby onsen (hot-spring resort) at night. For her, suicide is a personal pain. Her parents took their own lives when she was a teenager, a grief she did not share with anyone until she was in her 50s.
在世界各地，撒玛利亚会等志愿者团体尝试通过倾听的方式来遏制自杀。这些举措确实有助于降低自杀率。但在最初，这些团体往往很少或根本得不到政府的支持。由纪夫志下表示：“政客们过去把自杀看作是个人问题”。在退休后的头几年里，他和河谷美佐子自费成立了这家自杀预防中心，甚至租借数栋公寓作为招待所。为了维持收支平衡，河谷美佐子白天在该中心工作，晚上到附近的温泉度假村做清洗浴缸的工作。她切身体会到自杀所带来的痛苦。她的父母在她十几岁时选择了自杀——直到50来岁后，她才同别人分享了这段伤心往事。

Suicide is not only a social problem; it is the country’s responsibility, says Mr Shige. He was one of the main lobbyists behind a law passed in 2006, which for the first time made public entities responsible for suicide prevention.
由纪夫志下认为，自杀不只是一个的社会问题，同时也是这个国家的责任。在2006年通过的一项法案中，日本首次规定公共机构承担预防自杀的责任，而由纪夫志下就是该法案的主要游说者之一。

Much is still to be done. In the meantime, Mr Shige guides the desperate from the cliffs. They tried giving them coffee. But, says Mr Shige, it was “too impersonal”. So he helps them re-examine their problems over a traditional, nurturing bowl of mochi. “There’s nothing in this world”, he says, “that can’t be solved.”
还有很长的道路要走。在此期间，由纪夫志下在引领绝望者远离悬崖。他们尝试过给这些绝望者提供咖啡。但由纪夫志下认为，这“太缺乏人情味”。因此，他在送上一碗营养丰富的传统酱拌麻糬后，再帮助轻生者重新审视他们的问题。他说：“世上没有过不去的坎。”（译：林雅欣）

https://www.economist.com/international/2018/11/24/japanese-volunteers-curb-suicide-with-kindness-and-pancakes

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/-it-s-my-duty-to-save-lives-the-story-of-yukio-shige--152927.html

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-suicide-20180222-story.html

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