Japan’s “Suicide Forest” is one of the most talked about legends in recent years because the YouTuber, Logan Paul, decided to film a dead body while vlogging in the forest. Filming a man who had just hung himself was not a very good idea for his reputation, but it brought even more attention to his urban legend. Certain aspects of the Aokigahara Forest are factual, while others are creepily coincidental to those facts.

Firstly, the qualities of the location of the forest are unique. The Aokigahara Forest is located at the base of Mount Fuji. This mountain causes the ground to be a floor of compressed volcanic rock with soil so thick that it is impossible to dig into. Iron deposits in the volcanic soil lead to issues using any form of technology. The trees that form the forest are very special thanks to this soil. There are so many trees that another name for the forest is the “Sea of Trees.” The foliage block out the sun, along with views of trails, making it very easy to get lost. The trees also block out most sounds, including wind. There have been reports of ghosts moaning in the eerie silence. Being devoid of many nutrients because of the poor soil and lack of sunlight lead the forest to have nearly no wild animals. The forest also includes icy caverns below ground with freezing temperatures. The features of the forest are almost as unique as its history.

The Aokigahara Forest is known for being the second highest rated suicide-central in the world. There is no exact number of how many people have killed themselves in the forest, but it is estimated to be over 500. Forest workers pick up around 70 corpses every year, but many are thought to have disappeared in the foliage. In Japanese folklore, it is said that those who commit suicide cannot join the spirits of their ancestors and so they turn into a spirit called yurei that haunt the forest. The popularity of the forest has lead to many deaths of various types of people who want to die for various reasons.

As previously stated, when a body is found, the forest workers are forced to carry out certain procedures and rituals that have become a tradition in order to pay a certain respect to those who die. The workers carry the bodies down to the police station where the bodies are placed in a room to house bodies from suicides. The workers play janken (rock, paper, scissors) to decide who has to sleep in the room with the corpse so that the spirit is not left alone overnight.

Suicides in the forest have been a problem for a very long time. This has lead to the addition of anti-suicide signs to the forest. Everyday, new precautions are made often to try to limit the amount of people that commit suicide in the Aokigahara Forest.