I think the western media takes a big interest in suicides there because the suicide culture there has always been eroticized to westerners. Westerners who are young enough to remember talking /w WW2 era vets would all have been told the stores of kamikaze, etc.
Many Japanese chose to go by train. It is not uncommon if you ride the tokyo mass transit system to see "Delay: Accident" on the screens that report
the status of the train system. I was explained by a japanese that these accidents are not derailments or random collisions with debris, they are almost always suicide. If you have a chance to visit japan take notice of this when you ride the public transit. You can also see on youtube about the suicide fences being installed but really these are just a massive joke, they don't stop anything just make it harder or force people to use different stations