
How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide Epidemic - bemmu
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/how-blue-lights-on-train-platforms-combat-tokyos-suicide-epidemic
======
fiatjaf
"A research paper published in the Journal of Affective Disorder in 2013 (four
years after the first lights were installed) found that there was an 84
percent decrease in suicides at stations with the blue lights. The exact
reason why the lights are effective isn’t known, but some researchers theorize
that it’s related to the apparent positive effect of light on mood. A recent
study led by Hiroshi Kadotani, from Shiga University of Medical Science found
there was an “increased proportion of railway suicide attempts after several
days without sunlight,” based on 971 suicides or attempted suicides in Tokyo
between 2002 and 2006."

So they don't know how blue lights do anything. The title of the article is
totally misleading.

~~~
jchrisa
I have a
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M3SGD4Y/](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M3SGD4Y/)
blue light in my office to use around noon in wintertime it has a powerful
effect. Using it too early in the morning can throw your circadian rhythm so
maybe lunch is the best time.

~~~
_asdf_asdf
If all this were generally true of blue light, then a television monitor tuned
to an all-blue channel would be just as effective.

~~~
db48x
An "all-blue" channel is an artifact of your television. Modern televisions
put up a solid color rather than snow when they fail to detect a carrier wave
on the chosen channel.

~~~
recursive
The mechanics don't really matter. It's still just as effective.

~~~
db48x
Ok, but the "all-blue channel" is just the TV turning all the lights blue when
it can't find a signal. Why bring a TV into it if you can just put up blue
lights?

------
thekevan
12 paragraphs on suicide in Japan and about 2.5 sentences on the lights.

I'll save you the click: They don't really know why the blue lights reduce
people's urge to commit suicide, they just do.

------
Someone
That 84% fall in number of suicides surprised me, so I googled around a bit.

[http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-
co...](http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-colored-
light-prevent-suicide/) gives some more reasonable account (part of the change
may be that people do not commit suicide _there_) and references the paper in
question ([http://phys.org/news/2008-12-blue-streetlights-crime-
suicide...](http://phys.org/news/2008-12-blue-streetlights-crime-
suicide.html)) which is titled (emphasis added): "Blue streetlights _may_
prevent crime, suicide".

Unfortunately, I cannot find the text.

As to the effect, I now think it may be real in the sense that it prevents
suicide on impulse. People who are suicidal all the time will probably find
another place or method to do so, but people who just feel miserable and have
suicidal impulses may be prevented from jumping.

And of course, that may change once people have grown up in cities that are
illuminated sky-blue throughout the night.

~~~
Amezarak
> As to the effect, I now think it may be real in the sense that it prevents
> suicide on impulse. People who are suicidal all the time will probably find
> another place or method to do so, but people who just feel miserable and
> have suicidal impulses may be prevented from jumping.

This wouldn't be a new finding. Several years ago, I read that putting
railings on bridges dropped the overall suicide rate for similar reasons.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science)

As both the article and another commenter note, British suicide rates dropped
as the most popular method of suicide (sticking your head in the oven) was
made more difficult by the reduction of coal-gas ovens.

Another interesting addendum is the impulsively suicidal generally choose the
most effective methods (jumping off a bridge, shooting oneself, etc) while the
most determinedly suicidal choose the least effective methods (overdosing,
cutting, etc.) It's perversely the opposite of what you might expect.

~~~
Lawtonfogle
One question I have, that can be hard to ask without sounding insensitive, is
if all suicide attempts are equal in their intent. Overdosing allows for far
more options to be saved than a shotgun does; could the choice of one over the
other be due to a subconscious or conscious desire to not actually die?

------
lucb1e
TL;DR: Lots of suicide, though it's on the decline. "Suicide is a bigger
threat to Tokyo's citizens than natural disasters and traffic fatalities
combined." Research in 2013 "found that there was an 84 percent decrease in
suicides at stations with the blue lights" but the reason is unknown.

------
a3n
> During rush hour, those 67 minutes may be spent on a train crowded with four
> times as many passengers as it’s designed to carry.

This article gives me the impression that all they're really trying to do,
realizing it or not, is make it possible for that anti-pattern, and all the
anti-patterns surrounding it, to continue to exist. "Be strong, go to work!"

Also, if you have to travel 67 minutes to and from work in a cattle car, and
you're part of the "salary man" cohort with legendary working hours, how can
you have any time at all to take advantage of the "free" mental health
services mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

I've been on software "death marches" of a few weeks or months. The stereotype
that I see in my at a distance news reading from Japan looks like a lifelong
death march.

We are not "meant," or evolved, depending on your point of view, to work and
stress all our waking hours. We are not meant to live in Tokyo and similar
environments.

------
RankingMember
The title of this article seems to indicate the article will be all about the
blue lights, but the article only dedicates one paragraph of eleven to
describing them. This was an interesting article nonetheless.

------
ck2
When I hear a number like 84% drop I cannot cannot help but think of how in
NYC cops are taught/encouraged to reduce crime statistics by reporting them
differently.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/nyregion/new-york-
police-d...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/nyregion/new-york-police-
department-manipulates-crime-reports-study-finds.html?_r=0)

[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-crime-newyork-
statistics-i...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-crime-newyork-statistics-
idUSBRE82818620120309)

However it is kind of hard to fudge suicide reports I guess.

Makes me sad to hear suicide is so high in Japan, especially with free/low-
cost mental and physical health care. Has to be a cultural thing where it is
accepted and then one person sees/reads about another doing it so it plants
the idea in their head that it is okay.

~~~
hindsightbias
Cowokers in NYC told me years back to never approach NYPD if mugged. "They'd
rather make you a PI than hurt the mayor's stats."

------
ZenoArrow
It's worth pointing out that there are issues in Japan with homicide cases
being reported as suicides:

[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-n...](http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-
national/japans-suicide-statistics-dont-tell-the-real-story/)

~~~
MichaelGG
That article says there's 45 potential known cases (since 98?). That...
doesn't seem high? Even 45 a year is only an error rate of 0%.

What's the error rate in other countries?

~~~
ZenoArrow
The important point is not about the known cases, but rather the way death is
handled in the culture. For example:

[http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-
autopsy9](http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9)

"Photos of the teenager's corpse show a deep cut on his right arm, horrific
bruising on his neck and chest. His face is swollen and covered with cuts. A
silhouette of violence runs from the corner of his left eye over the cheekbone
to his jaw, and his legs are pocked with small burns the size of a lighted
cigarette.

But police in Japan's Aichi prefecture saw something else when they looked at
the body of Takashi Saito, a 17-year-old sumo wrestler who arrived at a
hospital in June. The cause of death was "heart disease," police declared.

As is common in Japan, Aichi police reached their verdict on how Saito died
without an autopsy. No need for a coroner, they said. No crime involved. Only
6.3% of the unnatural deaths in Aichi are investigated by a medical examiner,
a minuscule rate even by nationwide standards in Japan, where an autopsy is
performed in 11.2% of cases."

------
CaptainZapp
Interesting,

The four new Prague metro stations are equipped with a blue band at the edge
of the platform, which starts to blink when a train approaches.

I wonder if this is coincidental.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Actually, this has been implemented already on the previous 3 stations on the
red line (2008), and on the tram extension to Barrandov (2004). The band was
originally supposed to have been red (as in "danger, train approaching, do not
cross"), but was changed early in the process: red is already in use for train
signalling and the designers have seen this as potentially confusing to train
drivers (the lights tend to reflect into the tunnels somewhat, and "red light"
in the underground signalling code means "EMERGENCY, STOP THE TRAIN BY ANY
MEANS POSSIBLE") - so they have chosen a color which is unused (green and
orange/yellow are also assigned meanings for signalling - "clear to proceed"
and "next block occupied"). Source: local transport grapevine.

(On second thought, most Prague underground stations are lit with light that's
closer to the "daylight" range than to "incadescent", but that might be an
artifact of the lighting systems rather than a deliberate choice)

TL;DR: Just a UX coincidence.

~~~
CaptainZapp
Thanks!

It's comments like yours, which make HN interesting. Even if the upcoming
questions are of rather idiosyncratic nature.

I assume that the C line stations equipped with those bands are the ones up
north (thanks for the addition). I have to admit that I never made it that
far.

As a side note. The general design of the Prague metro stations are pretty
awesome (well, most of them anyway). The "bubble" design of the older A metro
stations is almost iconic.

Really a testament to Czech design in my view.

Thanks again for the insight.

~~~
Piskvorrr
You're welcome.

Yep, that's them; there's nothing to see in the desolate northern wastes
anyway ;) Except perhaps the Strizkov "White Whale" metro station, a
Schrödingerish case of good/bad design: you'll love and/or hate it.

[http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/26127084](http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/26127084)

~~~
trevyn
>[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Praha%2C...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Praha%2C_St%C5%99%C3%AD%C5%BEkov%2C_stanice_metra_St%C5%99%C3%AD%C5%BEkov%2C_no%C4%8Dn%C3%AD_pohled_od_severv%C3%BDchodu.jpg)

FTFY.

------
platz
Funny, they didn't know the blue lights would have that effect when installed
initially (the initial reason seems to be aesthetic); it was only after they
were in use for a while, that an analysis revealed the decrease in rate.

------
talles
For anyone that was actually interest on the blue light effect:
[http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-
co...](http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-colored-
light-prevent-suicide/)

------
geomark
I didn't realize the suicide rate in Japan was so high. It's sad. Combine that
with Japan's phenonmena of "moss viewing girls" [1] and "herbivore men" [2]
and it really seems like the Japanese are destined for extinction.

[1] [http://ignition.co/398](http://ignition.co/398) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men)

~~~
Chris2048
I read an article one about murder in the sumo community in Japan. It
suggested many murders were considered suicides by the police, and thus not
investigated.

This would keep the murder rate artificially low and the suicide rate
artificially high.

I also heard that due to the nature of elderly benefit receival in Japan, its
status as having some of the longest living people might also be in doubt...

Nothing substantial I can give you, but I'll just mention this :-)

~~~
geomark
You mention the elderly; can't find the link now but I read a very sad story
about a man who cleans up houses in Japan after a person has died in them.
Many suicides and many more elderly who just died alone out of neglect.

Also, on the suicide rate, seems like Japan is a ways down the list at 9th
place with a rate of 28.2 per 100,000 (for years 1985 - 2015) [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate#List_by_other_sources_.281985.E2.80.932015.29)

------
upofadown
There is some evidence that exposing people to light from blue LEDs has some
element of mad science. Non-blue light mixed with blue light has been shown to
reduce the effect of the blue light. So exposing someone to just blue light
can cause a very strong reaction, possibly larger than encountered in nature.

------
dmalvarado
There was a TED talk about "changing one little thing". It was not
specifically about suicide prevention, but a whole bunch of cases where all
you had to do was change something small to bring about different behavior.
Can anyone remind me what that was?

~~~
dmalvarado
Found it. It wasn't a TED talk, it was this:
[http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/upshot/a-better-
governm...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/upshot/a-better-government-
one-tweak-at-a-time.html?referer=&_r=0)

------
BillinghamJ
Presumably the effect here is comparable with SAD -
[http://www.sad.org.uk](http://www.sad.org.uk)

You can buy "SAD lamps" which emit a fairly bright cold color temperature
light which in theory helps you generally feel better.

------
Perixoog
Anecdotally I saw blue led lighting to prevent at a train station for a London
Airport (I think Gatwick). The platform guard didn't seem to think it made any
difference, and that it was bought at the end of a budget period.

------
zkhalique
Why did KMart chose blue light?

[http://www.kmart.com/en_us/dap/blue-light-
specials.html](http://www.kmart.com/en_us/dap/blue-light-specials.html)

------
kevindeasis
Do we all agree that it might be a good idea to change the color of lights in
bridges, some parts of campus, and suicide spots?

------
adnanh
So why blue lights actually help?

~~~
benrapscallion
The retina contains a blue light sensitive photo pigment called melanopsin, in
specialized retinal ganglion cells. These melanopsin RGCs help integrate
environmental light into multiple systems including those that control mood.
Blue light this has beneficial effects in many neuropsychiatric disorders such
as seasonal affective disorder.

~~~
cJ0th
Interesting .. my laptop's screen has a slight blue tint ;)

~~~
xyzzy4
Blue light can also strongly disrupt sleep cycles, so watch out.

~~~
mintplant
F.lux (proprietary) and Redshift (open source) can help with this, if you find
computer use is giving you sleeping problems.

F.lux: [https://justgetflux.com/](https://justgetflux.com/)

Redshift: [http://jonls.dk/redshift/](http://jonls.dk/redshift/)

