Yukio Shige is a 70-year-old retired police officer who told Japan Today that he is the "chotto matte man": "chotte matte" means "Hold on, wait."
Every day, Shige patrols the Tojinbo cliffs on the Sea of Japan along with three volunteers, keeping a look out and talking to people contemplating ending their life. The popular tourist site is a notorious place for suicides.
Shige himself knows the pain of dealing with suicide: a few years ago he got a call from the police concerning a friend. "They told me he killed himself. He rented a car in north eastern Japan and drove into the ocean.
"I've seen so much grief. I don't wish to hear anymore more mourning," Shige says, discussing how he uses pair of binoculars to survey the nooks and crannies of Tojinbo in his daily search.
The 2014 suicide rate in Japan was 24.1 per 100,000, according to the government. The rate has come down in recent years after peaking at 33,093 in 2007, forcing the government to vow to cut the suicide rate over the next decade with new measures to improve counselling and monitor websites that help people form suicide pacts.
"If you stop and picture that scene; someone sitting and believing that their only option is to end everything, alone with their shadow, I truly feel that they want help. They want someone to step in and save them.
"We take those that want our help to the six apartments we own so that they can repair and rebuild their lives. We help them get their lives back.
"This is is what I do.
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A retired Japanese police officer has saved an estimated 500 lives in the past decade after devoting himself to preventing suicides.
Yukio Shige patrols the Tojinbo cliffs in Fukui Prefecture with a pair of binoculars, on the lookout for people who are about to jump.
The 70-year-old has come to be known as the ‘chotto matte man’, meaning the ‘Hold on, wait man’.
Although a popular tourist site, the Tojinbo cliffs on Japan’s west coast have also developed a reputation as a notorious suicide spot.
Life-saver: 70-year-old Yukio Shige patrols the Tojinbo cliffs in Fukui Prefecture, on the west coast of Japan, looking for people who appear to be planning to jump into the sea
Hero: Along with his team of three volunteers, Mr Shige spends every day on the cliffs with a pair of binoculars, and has saved an estimated 500 people over the past 11 years
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Mr Shige goes to the cliffs every day, accompanied by his three volunteers.
Together, the team spot potential jumpers and try to talk them out of it.
His selfless mission was inspired by the tragic suicide of a friend, and he can clearly remember the day he got a call from the police to inform him of the death.
‘They told me he killed himself. He rented a car in north eastern Japan and drove into the ocean,’ he told Odditycentral.com.
‘I’ve seen so much grief. I don’t wish to hear any more mourning.
If you stop and picture that scene; someone sitting and believing that their only option is to end everything, alone with their shadow, I truly feel that they want help.
Yukio Shige
‘If you stop and picture that scene; someone sitting and believing that their only option is to end everything, alone with their shadow, I truly feel that they want help.
‘They want someone to step in and save them.’
But Mr Shige doesn’t just haul people back from the cliff edge.
He has devoted his life to improving the lives of others and to persuading them that suicide is not the answer, and helps them get their lives back on track.
‘We take those that want our help to the six apartments we own, so that they can repair and rebuild their lives,’ he continued.
‘We help them get their lives back. This is what I do.’
The first time that Mr Shige came into contact with a suicidal person was in 2003, and the experience shook him to the core.
He was on one of his last patrols of his career, before he was due to retire, and he met an elderly couple who owned a pub and were struggling to cope with the soaring debt.
They confessed to him their plan to throw themselves into the sea at sunset.
Horrible loss: Mr Shige was inspired to start helping people who want to commit suicide after one of his closest friends killed himself, an event which shook Mr Shige to his core
But Mr Shige talked them out of their decision, calling a patrol car for them and taking them to a public welfare bureau.
Despite his desperate attempts to get the couple welfare support, the couple were turned away and five days later they hanged themselves.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and Mr Shige has learned a lot about what not to say to suicidal people.
In one tragic incident, Mr Shige was out of town and had left the other volunteers to patrol alone.
They spotted a young woman about to jump and approached, but she insisted that they leave her alone for 10 minutes before trying to talk to her.
Despite her request, within minutes she was surrounded by several police officers and an ambulance.
The group tried to talk her out of jumping for more than five hours, but eventually she said ‘Sayonara’ and leapt into the sea.
When Mr Shige returned he was furious to discover that the police had told the girl to ‘think how your mother and father must be worrying’, and insisted that was the ‘worst thing possible’ to say.
He explained: ‘You yourself must help them get back on their feet, work with them to solve their problems.
‘If they’re in debt, I take them to legal aid people; if they’re out of work, I take them to the Hello Work employment agency; if they’re homeless, I take them home with me.’
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