I wouldn't say seppuku was all that common, actually. Our modern image is warped by samurai movies these days. The only people who would have done seppuku were the samurai, but they only accounted for about 10% of the population. Regular people viewed the samurai with hatred and suspicion and would have considered seppuku as pretty crazy.

But anyway, yeah, these days our attitudes have been influenced by media and some types of suicide or reasons for it have taken on a more noble image. Some people who do it in Japan may have that in mind. But it's usually more of an escape of depressed people, same as in the West.