Turning Japanese

When I was a recent college grad, a friend of mine, who was going through an MA in education to become a high school English teacher, told me the following anecdote. He had been paired up with a woman to work on a teaching assignment. This woman, lets call her "Lily" (not her real name at all--I have no recollection what her real name is) and my friend, lets call him "Pat" (again, not his real name at all) were discussing the best way to conceive this particular teaching assignment, when Lily said, apropos of nothing "Well, we can't make this too difficult, otherwise the Asian students will commit suicide." Pat (who is white) looked at Lily (also white) oddly and asked her to explain. Elaborating on her first comment, Lily explained that because Asian students feel SO MUCH PRESSURE to succeed, they will commit suicide if they believe that they will not receive an "A"--in fact, what she said was "Yes, Japanese students commit suicide when they don't get good grades."

Fast forward to March 2009. Republican Senator Charles Grassley (Iowa), in reaction to bonuses for AIG executives had this to say about the action that AIG execs should be taking, noting that they should

"follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide."

Elaborating on these comments he noted:

"Japanese CEOs either go out and commit suicide, and probably in most cases they don't, and when they don't they come before the public and bow very, very deeply, and express regret, and may resign or may stay on, but the point is they accept full responsibility."

REALLY???

Is there a rash of suicides among Japanese students and executives that has somehow escaped me or is this just a stereotype that has persisted from the days of WWII of kamikaze pilots and Samurai films depicting warriors committing seppuku (ritual Samurai suicide).

So, does Grassley really want AIG execs turning Japanese and why is it that everyone is expressing outrage that he would dare suggest that AIG execs commit suicide AND YET no one has questioned the outrageousness of this stereotype of Japanese as prone to committing suicide at the slightest mention of shame--as if Japanese culture was so honor bound that the thought of censure is enough to drive people, from students to businesspeople, to take that sword to the belly.