Tim Starr writes:
Japan classifies cases of husbands murdering their wives & kids then killing
themselves as all suicides, no homicides, thus skewing their statistics in
favor of suicides & against homicides.
This claim is easily seen to be false: You just have to look at the
Japanese suicide statistics. There are no recorded suicides of small
children.
That doesn't necessarily falsify the claim. How are "small
children" defined?
Under 5. And the suicide rate for 5-14 year olds is half of the US
rate.
How do you know that "family suicides" in Japan don't usually take place when
the children are no longer "small"?
Because I've actually read something on the subject. A typical
"family suicide" involves a mother of small children killing her
children and herself. Just because the literal translation of the
Japanese word for this is "family suicide", it does not follow that
the homicide of the children is officially recorded as suicide.
See: R, Markman & D. Bosco, "Alone with the Devil," 342ff (1989).
Iga, Mamoru "The thorn in the chrysanthemum : suicide and economic
success in modern Japan"