Photo/Illutration Volunteers at ChildLine Kita-Kyushu respond to messages from children through an online chat service in May. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“Songs cannot bring about a revolution. But songs have the power to prevent suicides.”

With this, writer Ryu Murakami concluded the commentary he wrote for a collection of lyrics composed by singer-songwriter Keisuke Kuwata, the frontman for the Southern All Stars rock band.

The collection is titled “Tadano Kashi ja Neka, Konnamon” (These are just lyrics).

I remember how the words struck a sympathetic chord in my heart when I read them 39 years ago as a high school student.

When someone is in hopeless despair, how can we stop the person from taking their own life?

I was distressed by a recent welfare ministry report that 514 elementary, junior and senior high school students committed suicide last year.

It was the largest number since data started being compiled in 1980.

The reasons for the suicides included poor academic performances, worries about the future and strife with friends or parents.

The findings suggest the victims often had anxiety about their futures, but they had no one to turn to for support.

While the novel coronavirus pandemic has reduced students’ ties with people around them, their parents are stressed out at home.

Young people need places where they can receive counseling.

Koki Ozora of the Anata no Ibasho nonprofit organization has a valid point regarding the situation where counseling services are mainly provided over the phone.

He asks if children of today, who communicate with friends through social media, not through the phone, are ready to talk about serious problems over the phone.

What is needed is counseling through characters on online chat services rather than through the phone.

Children use new technology for communication and adults who need to help them appear to be having trouble keeping up.

I feel guilty that our society is failing to offer hope to children in trouble.

In his commentary, Murakami also wrote that Japan “has long been poor and is actually still poor now. If the country were truly affluent, there would be 10 Keisuke Kuwatas and 10 Southern All Stars.”

As one of the no-good adults here, I want to tell children in despair: Find a song, a chat service or whatever else that can help you make it through.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 19

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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