One sad news about our Ph.D colleague in Tohoku University

I usually don't write a post about society news, but this time I could not resist my moral obligation to share this sad news: "２年連続論文戻され、東北大院生自殺「指導に重大過失」", which literally means "PhD thesis rejected for two consecutive years, a graduate student from Tohoku University committed suicide (Advisor's blunder)", as I bet that this kind of news will rarely be heard by foreigners.

Basically, the article said that a student, who had been 29 years old, had committed suicide in August 2008, after his Ph.D thesis manuscript had been returned by his advisor. In December 2007, he also submitted his thesis manuscript, but his advisor did not accept it without adequate discussions. Further, in 2006, his advisor instructed him to delay submitting his Ph.D thesis submission.

Now, you may wonder why he committed suicide for such "trivial" matters ? I agree that failing to obtain a degree should not make us want commit suicide. And in fact, being enrolled in a field which we are interested in, is already enough to create motivations for us to pursue our study. After all, we are interested in it, aren't we ? Sadly, having been studying in Japan and having experienced the pit myself as I wrote in my self-development blog, I wouldn't say that I don't understand at all why he committed suicide, although perhaps I can't put it into words well.

An obvious reason is that he was bound to the seemingly unacceptable instructions by his advisor. I am interested in finding out more how many papers this student and his advisor have published in recent years, and to find out if there is any connection, but it's unfortunate that the names are not written in the news article.

Rumors said that many other foreign students also faced this kind of strange demands from their advisors. If you happen to be one of these, here are my two cents. First, don't let your advisor control your life completely, however obvious this may sound. I had a strange discussion with my friends, with us mentioning our lives as "babes". Would you like your advisor to decide which "babe" you'd like to take as your wife ?

The second one is, you can always find alternatives, like looking for a job, going back to your country, succeeding your parents' company, etc, although the prospect of Ph.D students getting a job in Japan is rather low. In my opinion, in Japan, companies generally don't consider accepting Ph.D students, who are fresh graduates, as new employees, let alone giving higher salaries as what they do in United States. I am fortunate myself to have been given several job offers, but in one company, I was rejected simply because my age was already over 27 years old. This is also perhaps one of the reasons why he did such a horrible thing if he thought of entering a company.

And the last one, of course, don't do that ! You don't deserve it, and I believe there are still many opportunities for you lying ahead. After all, you have succeeded in coming this far.

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