Such a small island yet behind it lies a deep dark forest, where over hundreds of people per year have been found dead because they have decided they take their own life. Where is this place? Located in north of Japan close to Mt. Fuji is Aokigahara or as it well known all over the world the infamous Suicide Forest.

This site Atlas Obscura describes it like this: “Since the 1950s, Japanese business men wandered into the forest over 500 of them have walked in and over half of them wouldn’t walk back out”. Japan has a high rate of suicide over 100 cases per year involving teens, college students, regular adults, and just everyday people who would go into the forest.

Aokigahara is apparently the go to place or as the natives call it “ the perfect place to die”.

Hundreds of tourist go to the forest to and take walks, go on hikes and even walk their dogs. But other people decide to take a different route and pass the sign that reads “立ち入り禁止” which translates to “No Trespass,” deep in those path people would find the bodies of those whose lives are no longer in this world.

For many Americans, this is the first time they’ve even heard of this place. So how did make headlines? A 22-year-old Youtuber name Logan Paul.

Paul is a social media star, famous on many platforms, best known for his 15 million subscribers on youtube. Most of his audience is children, and teenagers, having a younger audience comes with the expectation that these kids will try to “copy” his types of videos, and this is not a video that should be viewed or copied by others.

The video that has been causing a lot of backlash is one that Logan Paul filmed as part of a series of vlogs he uploaded on his trip to Japan. The video was titled, “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…” which already set the mood for what was going to come. This video starts out as Logan Paul, with Melissa Marquez, as well as Andy Altig, standing around talking about the forest. All of the sudden, they see a person hanging, which in the video was stated that he didn’t look like he was dead for long. Logan Paul films this hanging person, and only blurs out the face, leaving the rest of the corpse for all to see.

Throughout the video, Logan Paul was trying to do what he is famous for, which is comedic and sarcastic input. He proceeds to laugh, and add sarcastic anecdotes to try to lighten the mood. The two others present also proceed to make jokes and giggle about the subject. Towards the very end of the video, he says, while smiling and laughing “is not a portrayal of how I feel about the circumstances,” describing it as his coping mechanism. In other words, he is attempting to justify his laughter.

This youtube video was viewed over 6 million times, before getting removed by youtube after many other youtubers, as well as celebrities, as well as fans, reacted badly to this video. Most backlash came from the parents of those who watch Logan Paul regularly. Several youtubers posted their reactions of his video, and their thoughts and feelings on it, all were not positive. Logan Paul has received so much hate that he then posted a poorly scripted apology. This apology, in his mind was to fix it all, almost as if he thought everyone would adore him again and forget about this incident. In reality, it only made people more angry.

Not only has he received hate from celebrities, Youtubers, and fans, he also has been banned from the Vine 2 platform and will not be allowed to join when the app is up and running. Not to mention, the people behind Youtube tweeted out about the issue. As many know, Logan Paul is featured on the preferred program page for the site. Youtube is removing him from this popular page, as well as refusing to promote him or his social media accounts.

Aokigahara isn’t a playground and it isn’t a place to go and joke around and film for views; it’s place where you go and pay your respects.