It's very culture-specific I think. We're more individual than most other places in the world, don't have Eastern family ties or Arab religious convictions. So there are different reasons for or against individuals taking their lives.

When I was in group therapy in the mid-1970's, there was a Japanese boy in our group who was seriously depressed because he was living in the United States instead of Japan and because of that, was getting "behind" in his education. Japanese education is very competitive and he needed to be going to special schools and have special tutoring they only have in Japan and when his diplomatic father's tour of duty was over and they moved back to Japan, he'd have no hope of getting into university. If he couldn't get in, he'd kill himself.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_.../20040527.html

That seems very odd to us, I'm sure like our gunmen in schools and malls or Wendy's/restaurants on shooting sprees does to them.