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Some online chat forum users egged on the man after he posted that he was considering suicide, local media reported. Some chatters urged him not to, while others said he was lying, local media said.

The man started live-streaming his own hanging. Viewers called police.

The suicide was reported to police in the northern Japanese city of Sendai about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, said the vice chief of the Sendai North Police.


Officers found the man at his home, after he had hanged himself. They determined his address with help from internet chat sites.

Police released no further information, citing privacy protections in cases of suicide.

An image has been floating around cyberspace, showing a person hanging from what looks like a fabric belt, looped across a horizontal pole or rod.

The streaming service Ustream said the image was not doctored and that it shows the man who killed himself.

Ustream removed the image after users flagged it, said spokesman Fumihiro Ito.

The company planned to beef up monitoring of user content following the suicide, Ito said.