According to my experience in forensic practice, some cases of death in our society, such as committing suicide, traffic-related death, and death during bathing are preventable. Regarding suicide in Akita Prefecture, the suicide rate has always been the highest since the end of Showa Era. Also notable is that suicide numbers dramatically increased nationwide to more than 30,000 people in 1998 and to this day still exceed 30,000. In 2006 the Japanese Government enacted a law at preventing suicides. The law seeks to both reduce the number of suicides nationwide as well as establish a social support system. With concerns to traffic-related death, more than 16,000 people were recorded to have died in traffic accidents in 1970, however up until last year this number had gradually decreased to less than 5,000. This is a good example showing that both governmental and non-governmental efforts are necessary in resolving the issue. Unlike the preventable deaths mentioned above, there are no official governmental or local statistics that record death resulting from in hot baths. According to our estimation, approximately 20,000 people might die while bathing. It has already established that sudden death or sudden cardio pulmonary arrest because of entering hot bath water occurs mostly in winter time, and 90% of these cases are of elderly people. Although the extreme hot temperatures of a Japanese- style bath may cause some cardiac or cerebral distress in bathers, only a few cases of bath-related deaths have been autopsied to clarify the cause of death. I would like to emphasize the importance of calling attention to the potential dangers of taking baths in hot water and to the need for us together with the senior citizen population of this danger, as well as their family members by lecture and brochure. Furthermore, more in depth surveys and autopsies need to be performed by medical experts in cases of accidental death during bathing.
