Last Updated: Feb 8, 2023

Aokigahara

Dispelling the Stigma of the “Suicide Forest”

Maybe if more people actually visited the Sea of Trees, as opposed to just imagining it based on multimedia, it would help dispel some of the spooky notions that are floating around out there.

— Beyond Death & Pain: The Truth About Japan’s ”Suicide Forest”

“No! No! No! Nooooo!” I shouted while banging my fists on the desk. I was visibly getting heated. Those sitting nearby me in the office looked on with bewildered amusement. It was far from the weirdest thing they had witnessed me doing but I am sure it still came as quite the surprise. You see, it was early 2018 and I had just heard the daily news. Some jackass YouTuber by the name of Logan Paul with millions of followers (whom I had thankfully been ignorant of up to this point) was going viral after displaying a dead body he had stumbled across in the Aokigahara forest. “Great. Just what we needed…” I lamented, this time to myself. I certainly had my work cut out for me if I was going to successfully rebrand this place.