Dear Sir,
Like many of your readers, I was deeply saddened by the awful death of the 71-year-old pensioner Haruo Hayashizaki from Japan, who poured petrol over himself and set it alight (see Louise Morse’s column, September en).
Japan has a population of 127 million. Out of that number 596,000 are evangelical Christians, but it is a land of great need. Even its leaders called it ‘a superpower without a moral compass’. Many old people and young people lack confidence in the future and the shocking fact is that young people struggle the most, in particular with problems such as a suicide epidemic (over 30,000 per year), mistreatment by peers, or teenage prostitution. High suicide and divorce rates in other age groups confirm the crisis.