Gatekeeper at Japan's 'Suicide Forest' hopes music can save lives

Aokigahara's long history dates back to the middle of the ninth century, when Mount Fuji erupted and lava covered wide areas that have since transformed into a 30 square-kilometer forest.

Local people have long worshipped the woods and its surroundings as a sacred place that reputedly enshrines a dragon.

It is a foreboding place, thickly planted with tall trees that block out the sun, and carpeted with moss and gnarled roots.

That led in the 1970s to it being increasingly depicted in popular novels, movies and television dramas as the fictional setting for suicides.

The association eventually became strong enough that suicidal people began traveling to the forest to die.

Japan has the highest suicide rate of any Group of Seven industrialized nation, with more than 20,000 people taking their own lives annually.

And the suicide rate in Yamanashi prefecture, where the forest is located, was the worst in Japan for eight years until 2014.

In recent years, local residents say, the number of victims appeared to be on the decline, with some hoping the forest might finally shed its malign image.

But that hope was shattered when Paul uploaded his controversial film showing the body of a man who had committed suicide. The video attracted 6 million views before it was deleted.

Watanabe knows he faces an uphill struggle, but says he is committed to his campaign.

"Because I was born here, I have to protect this place," he says. "I feel it's like my duty."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE