Japan's kanji of the Year: 命(Life)

At the end of every year, Japan will choose a Chinese character to symbolize the main issue, problem or concerns of the year, (Japanese people are worldwide well known for having a strong sense of crisis and forward thinking), this year, the chosen character is 命(Life), to emphasis the biggest issue of Japanese society- Suicides among youth and young men and women caused by ijime(bullying). I have been writing all along about this problem, you can find out from here, here and here.

Only in the country of Japan that a suicide club is something a part of social network. With the same goal of killing themselves, young people at their 20s or 30s, mostly shut out from the rest of the society because they are simply different or they choose to live outside instead being forced to join a social circle, that they are punished for being ignored by all other peers.

Inside the Japanese society in which homogeneous character is the ultimate virtue, and being a part of a group is the ultimate goal, the peer pressure is simply too big to shoulder. As a foreigner who had lived and worked in Japan, I had witnessed how someone that is different being treated. longer haired men wearing a ring are labeled as "homo", and Asians other than Japanese are being treated as third class citizens.

Can the publicity generated by the Kanji of the Year will wake Japanese up to a more equal society?