Japan’s Aokigahara Forest was recently the setting for Jason Zada’s horror film The Forest, starring Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones). The real horror of the “Suicide Forest”, the decaying bodies of those who ended their lives alone, sometimes found years later.
In the photo above is a sign on a path in the forest asking people to reconsider suicide and to please think of their families. In the location over one hundred lives are lost every year, due to suicide. Both residents from Japan and tourist have been been flocking to the deep woods at the base of Mount Fuji to commit suicide for a many years. Deaths are so frequent that police are sent in on a regular basis to search for bodies with the help of volunteers. Of course land scared by so many deaths would be haunted. Legend goes that if you stay after the sun goes down you will see the spirits of those who died there endlessly wondering among the trees.
Vice Media Productions have released a twenty-one minute long documentary on the Aokigahara Forest, directed by Santiago Stelley. You will find it below.
If you ever come to a point when you are considering doing something drastic, please reach out to someone or call the Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255).
