South Korean workers shut inside coffins to make them ‘appreciate life’

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world

A woman, donning a traditional yellow hemp robe, lies down in a coffin during a "well-dying? course, run by a local district office in Seoul.The course, run by a local district office in the northeast of Seoul, has an aim: "Don't take life for granted." While some see the mock funeral as a way to reflect on one's life and prepare for death, many sceptics still question whether death simulation can prevent suicide and blame some entrepreneurs for using this as a commercial event (REUTERS/Truth Leem)

South Korean companies are making employees stage their own death by shutting themselves inside coffins in a bid to curb suicide rates.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

The country is facing a suicide crisis with an average of 29.1 suicides per 100,000 people according to health report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED).

Some South Korean companies are trying to address the high suicide rate with a drastic exercise.

Firms are making employees stage their own death during workshops organised in centres designed for the purpose.

Employees are asked to sign mock wills and write final letters to their families. Then the lights are lowered and the coffins are shut while participants lay inside for 10 long minutes.

For Jeong Yong-mun head of the Hyowon Healing Centre and former funeral company employee, the workshop is designed for people to embrace their problems and understand that difficulties are part of life, he told the BBC.

For Park Chun-woong the president of a human resources firm who signed up his staff to the ‘death workshop’, the shock enables them to have a new attitude.

“Our company has always encouraged employees to change their old ways of thinking, but it was hard to bring about any real difference,” said Park Chun-woong.

“I thought going inside a coffin would be such a shocking experience it would completely reset their minds for a completely fresh start in their attitudes,” he said.

According to Francoise Hugier, a French photographer who made a project about the Hyowon Healing Centre in Seoul, once coffins were reopened, the reactions varied. Some participants had fallen asleep while other cried or took selfies.

Suicide was the first cause of death among young people from 9 to 24 years old in South Korea in 2013 with rate of 7.0 per 100,000 up from 7.4 in 2003.

This is bigger than traffic accidents, in second place with 4.4 deaths per 100,000, while cancer came next at 3.1, according to a report by Statistics Korea.