That and the fact that getting into a decent college is rather hard in Japan. It has become cutthroat in every sense of the word. A friend of mine had a few Japanese friends who stopped having a social life so they can just study if that tells you anything.

Also, for the past few years suicide rates among middle-aged men have increased dramatically. The Japanese economy has been on a downward spiral for about a decade now and many men are losing their jobs, which give them reason to do the deed.