From our other sites
The story
On September 10, 2026, a specialist panel under Japan’s Children and Families Agency announced it would stop using the term “shinjū” (double suicide) — in use for roughly 20 years in reviews of child abuse deaths — replacing it with “child abuse death involving a guardian’s suicide.” The move follows criticism from experts that “shinjū,” which also carries the meaning of two people in love mutually agreeing to end their lives, obscures the reality that children are being dragged into these deaths. On 5ch threads, posters pointed out that the term “muri shinjū” (forced double suicide) already existed to distinguish these cases, while others responded with weary remarks that renaming the term won’t actually reduce such deaths — some even cited the Edo-period shogunate’s own relabeling of shinjū as “aitaijini” (mutual death) as historical precedent.
Asahi Shimbun
(Updated September 10, 2026, 12:59 PM)
Cases that have until now been called “shinjū” will henceforth be referred to as “child abuse deaths involving a guardian’s suicide.” The Children and Families Agency’s specialist panel on reviewing child abuse deaths changed the terminology on the 10th, after roughly 20 years of continuous use. The agency itself also plans to revise its terminology. Experts had criticized the word “shinjū” — which also carries the meaning of a loving couple mutually agreeing to die together — for “concealing the reality of child killing.”
Source: asahi.com / Original article here
What people said
Yeah, and scrap the fancy-sounding rebrand names too, like calling shoplifting "the plum" or whatever
Let's also start calling "enjo kōsai" (compensated dating) what it really is — prostitution
And when kids commit property damage, they call it "mischief"
You just called it "group suicide" yourself lol
Then it's just group suicide, isn't it
Changing the name doesn't actually solve the problem, does it
Meaningless to someone who's already at the end of their rope
With most "shinjū" cases, the perpetrator makes damn sure the kid or elderly victim they're dragging along is dead, then can't go through with it themselves — most get caught unharmed or barely scratched
I came here hoping someone would post exactly this
It's not shinjū, it's muri shinjū (forced double suicide) — feels almost like a denial of the Japanese language itself
True.
There's already a word for when one person's will drags others along with them — muri shinjū.
Why isn't that good enough?
So if you're one of the "elite class," you get a suspended sentence then
Plain "shinjū" is more like a young couple forbidden from marrying who both agree to die together.
Dazai Osamu's death, or the kabuki play "Sonezaki Shinjū," those are "shinjū."
Something like the Goebbels family under the Nazis would be "muri shinjū."
Well, I guess if it's this confusing, just retiring the word "shinjū" altogether is a fair call.
What even is a "shinjū that isn't muri shinjū"?
Technically, it's muri shinjū that falls outside the original concept of shinjū, you know?
There used to be things like star-crossed lovers' shinjū, right?
The kind that becomes the subject of novels and stories
They're increasing because the Japanese government made everyone poorer, y'know
Shinjū numbers have had some ups and downs, but they've basically been flat, you know?
If the parent agreed to it, that's shinjū.
If the parent didn't agree, that's murder
There's parent-killing shinjū too.
And for that matter, shinjū over unrequited love/jealousy as well
This isn't wordplay.
It's a correction, not a game
Background and Key Points
“Shinjū” originally meant a loving couple mutually agreeing to end their lives, with “muri shinjū” (forced shinjū) used as the proper term for cases where a parent drags a child along in death. In practice, however, news coverage has long blurred the two together, and the single word “shinjū” ended up obscuring abuse deaths in which the child had no say at all. This change by the Children and Families Agency’s specialist panel revises terminology that had been used in reviews for roughly 20 years, and lines up with a broader shift toward treating children as independent rights-holders rather than their guardians’ property. On the thread, though, many pointed out that renaming the term is a separate issue from tackling root causes like poverty and abuse prevention, with a persistent sense that changing the wording alone won’t change the reality.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “No More ‘Shinjū’: Government Panel Renames the Term Amid Criticism It ‘Hides Child Killing’.”
Leave a Reply