If the time is between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., there is a Tokyo English Life Line volunteer counselor sitting alone at a secret address somewhere in Tokyo, waiting for the phone to ring. This counselor may be male or female, young or elderly, Japanese or non-Japanese. But he or she will have undergone 60 hours of highly professional training, and speak fluent English.
As Susan Victor, TELL's Life Line services director explains: "We're nonprofit, we don't preach any religion or philosophy, and we don't offer offer judgmental advice or solutions. Basically we're here 365 days a year to listen and to talk about feelings."
TELL has changed quite a lot since it was founded in 1973. The foreign community got the idea from Japan's nationwide suicide hotline, called Inochi no Denwa, started 30 years ago. International churches did a lot of the original research, but now the organization has grown far beyond these roots.