shinjū

is a Japanese term meaning "double suicide", used in common parlance to refer to any group suicide of two or more individuals bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. A double suicide without consent is called and it is considered as a sort of murder–suicide.

thumb|Ukiyo-e by [[Utagawa Kunisada depicting "The Love Suicides at Sonezaki"]] Lovers committing double suicide believed that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in Edo period Japan, which taught that the bond between two lovers is continued into the next world, and by the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism wherein it is believed that through double suicide, one can approach rebirth in the Pure Land.