Sakatayama double suicide

On May 9, 1932, a man and a woman were found dead at the top of Mt. Sakata (a name coined by the reporting journalist) in Ōiso town, in Japan's Shōnan region. According to the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun's May 10 evening edition, the pair, a man in his mid-twenties wearing a Keio University uniform and a woman in her early twenties, were discovered lying together after apparently drinking sublimated (corrosive) water, with a bowl of flowers placed beside their pillows. Later newspaper coverage identified the two as Zusho Goro and Yuyama Yaeko, both members of the Anglican Church in Japan. Reporting indicated that Goro's father had promised the couple could marry after his graduation, but that Yaeko's parents opposed the match and had arranged a separate marriage for her. A suicide note attributed to Goro, dated May 5, expressed regret and referenced visiting his birth mother's grave.

The day after the initial discovery, evening newspapers reported that Yaeko's corpse had disappeared from the Ōiso cemetery, prompting sensationalized headlines speculating about the culprit's motive. The Ōiso Police Station conducted a large search and recovered the body on the morning of May 11, found unclothed on Ōiso Beach. Newspapers reported that the doctor and police chief who performed the autopsy stated the woman was a virgin, a detail that fueled further sensationalized coverage framing the deaths as pure, tragic love. On May 13, a young man and woman carrying a newspaper photograph of Goro and Yaeko died after jumping in front of a train on the Chūō Main Line near Kofu City. On May 18, police announced that the body had been taken by a 65-year-old crematorium employee, who reportedly confessed to handling the corpse out of curiosity after hearing it was beautiful; the man later stated in subsequent years that this account was not true.

Four days after the initial discovery, Shochiku's film department announced a movie based on the incident, released June 10, 1932, as "Love Tied to Heaven." The film and accompanying media coverage were followed by a wave of copycat suicides: reportedly 20 couples died at Mt. Sakata in 1932 alone, with cumulative suicides and attempts reaching approximately 200 by 1935. Local Ōiso residents sold souvenir items referencing the incident. In the following month, a member of Japanese nobility connected to Tokugawa Yoshinobu died by suicide with a companion. In February 1933, two female students jumped to their deaths at Mount Mihara; while no direct link to the Sakatayama case was stated by those involved, later commentators have suggested the earlier incident's media coverage may have been an influence. Mount Mihara subsequently saw 804 men and 140 women die by jumping in 1933 and became a tourist attraction. In 1950, a newspaper reporter who had accompanied the original autopsy doctor recounted a remark suggesting the woman may not have been a virgin, contradicting the earlier widely publicized finding.