Toyomasa Fuse (1931-2019), author and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Suicide Studies at York University, was one of Canada’s foremost experts in the study of suicide; the sociocultural factors that contribute to it, and how to prevent it. Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Fuse earned a scholarship from the United States Occupational Forces, which allowed him to attend Missouri Valley College in 1950, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1954. He earned both his Master of Sociology (1956) and Doctorate in Sociology (1961) at the University of California at Berkeley.

Fuse’s childhood experiences were shaped by the Second World War and the American occupation of Japan that followed. Growing up on Hokkaido during the 1930s and 1940s, when the island’s geopolitical circumstances created opportunities for cross-cultural contact and education, Fuse was exposed to different languages and cultures. His knowledge of eight languages, particularly of English, Italian and Spanish, allowed him to excel academically and professionally within the fields of sociology and comparative suicide studies.

During his employment at Cornell University, student activism and the Fuse’s support of the anti-Vietnam War movement in in the United States placed Fuse at a moral crossroads. Faced with worsening social unrest and worries that his young son would be drafted when he reached enlistment age, Fuse accepted a position at the L’Universite de Montreal in 1968 and moved the family to Canada. In the 1970s, the Fuse family moved to Toronto and Toyomasa Fuse began lecturing in Suicidology at York University. Fuse volunteered at suicide prevention centres in northern Metro Toronto. Retiring in 1997, Fuse continued to lecture in Suicidology as a Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow at York University. While continuing to write on suicide, Fuse pursued biographical and memoir writing in his later years.