We’ve already mentioned that Japanese train tracks are suicide hot spots. These days, train companies are trying to prevent suicide by installing blue lights at their stations. Japanese train companies installed the first lights in the 2000s after suicide by train reached a record high.
Blue lights were chosen because of the belief that the color blue makes people calmer and could make people attempting suicide reconsider. The lights seem to be working. In 2013, it was reported that suicides by trains dropped by as much as 84 percent after the lights were installed.
However, this is inconclusive because the lights could not have prevented suicide during the day, when they are barely noticable. Some stations even turned the lights off during the day. Other researchers believe the lights only reduced suicide by 14 percent. They also say protective barriers on the edges of platforms would prevent suicide better than blue lights.[
