A Yale professor said the suggestion of "mass suicide" was not a metaphor.

Yale professor suggests 'mass suicide' to solve Japan's aging population: 'I'd like a second opinion' The New York Times featured an article on controversial economist Yusuke Narita By Lindsay Kornick | Fox News 

Yusuke Narita has put forth the idea of euthanizing elderly citizens to combat issues regarding the country’s age-based society issues with often hyperbolic and controversial language. 

 "I feel like the only solution is pretty clear," Narita said in late 2021. "In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?"

His comments were not "taken out of context" Conversation with Hiroyuki, the current administrator of 4chan.

えっと……これ経済学者の方、見たほうがいいのでは。AIで合成した動画とかなら別ですが。 https://t.co/muQbHUyXhs

— Guardian-reading wokerati (@suzuky) February 15, 2023

1:10 He said:

It's not a metaphor at all. Mishima committed seppuke for real. Moreover the suicide is a symbol of Japan and it is accepted as such inside and outisde Japan. People say Mishima was cool. Harakiri can become a popular thing to do, methinks.