The Internet Way of Death

The message began as innocently as thousands of other singles ads that are routinely posted on the Internet in Japan. "Seeking companion," wrote the lonely male undergrad student from Tokyo. He wasn't looking for his dream date. "I have everything prepared except sleeping pills," the posting concluded. Two weeks later, on May 21, the college student was found dead in a car on a road running through a Gunma Prefecture forest. With him were the bodies of two other young men who, after evidently answering his online invitation, committed collective suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Many of the...