Yale professor calls for mass suicide for Japanese seniors and mandatory euthanasia

By James Schadenberg

Yusuke Narita

On February 12, 2023, the New York Times published an article by reporters Mokoyoko Rich and Hikari Hida about controvesial statements made by an assistant professor of economics at Yale named Dr. Yusuke Narita regarding the burdens caused by Japan's rapidly-aging society.

Dr. Narita believes that the only solution to relieving the financial strains caused by Japan's aging demographics is the mass suicide of the elderly. He also believes it is possible that euthanasia will become mandatory. As the New York Times reports:

"I feel the only solution is pretty clear," [Narita] said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” Seppuku is an act of ritual disembowelment that was a code among dishonored samurai in the 19th century.

Last year, when asked by a school-age boy to elaborate on his mass seppuku theories, Dr. Narita graphically described to a group of assembled students a scene from “Midsommar,” a 2019 horror film in which a Swedish cult sends one of its oldest members to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

“Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question to answer,” Dr. Narita told the questioner as he assiduously scribbled notes. “So if you think that’s good, then maybe you can work hard toward creating a society like that.”

At other times he has broached the topic of euthanasia. "The possibility of making it mandatory in the future," he said in one interview, will "come up in discussion".

The article claims that Dr. Narita has developed a large following in Japan, partially due to his provocative statements. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and frequently appears on Japanese online shows. The New York Times reports:

A growing group of critics warn that Dr. Narita’s popularity could unduly sway public policy and social norms. Given Japan’s low birthrate and the highest public debt in the developed world, policymakers increasingly worry about how to fund Japan’s expanding pension obligations. The country is also grappling with growing numbers of older people who suffer from dementia or die alone.

The comments made by Dr. Narita calling for the mass suicide of the elderly are disturbing and reflective of a mind that's been distorted to see vulnerable groups as being a mere problem that must be dealt with, as opposed to groups of persons who worthy of being treated with dignity and respect. 

Dr. Narita's predictions of mandatory euthanasia are shocking but not without historic precedence. Societies have never been immune from reducing vulnerable groups to "undesireables". As seen in the eugenics and euthanasia programs of the 20th century, human rights are sometimes ignored to "deal with" the financial strains attributed to these groups. Dr. Narita is not the first person to suggest euthanasia as a method to reduce healthcare spending, nor will he be the last.

 Further reading:

• Japanese dystopian euthanasia film "Plan 75" (Link).
• Canada has become a world leader in euthanasia (Link).
  
• Canada's health care savings attributed to euthanasia (Link).