Suicide in Japan

Abstract

This article introduces the reader to present conditions and suicide prevention measures in Japan. The suicide rate has increased gradually since the early 1990s, reaching a postwar peak in 1998. The number of suicides has remained at about 30,000 every year since 1998. Middle-aged (55-59 years) and elderly men have especially high suicide rates. In 2002, The Council of Learned People on Measures Against Suicides (organized by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare) released its report on national suicide prevention strategies. Although national suicide prevention strategies have just begun to be established, some prefectures or regions have undertaken unique suicide prevention measures.

Mortality from suicide and other external cause injuries in China: a prospective cohort study

“…Similar findings have been shown in other studies in China and in other populations across the world[2,5,7,8,15,18]. Some factors associated with living in a rural environment that may contribute to an increased suicide rate include lower socioeconomic status, traditional belief system, and less developed social networks[5,19].…”

“…Suicide risk among the elderly could be a consequence of increased terminal illness, disability, and depression[6,22,23]. With regard to other suicide risk factors that have been suggested in prior studies [7,13,24,25], although we found significant associations between BMI, employment and education with suicide, these were not significant after adjustment. In addition, we document residence in north China as a risk factor and found that smoking and drinking habits were not related to suicide.…”

“…By urbanization, suicide mortality for rural men exceeds that of rural women, whereas this relationship is reversed in urban areas. The majority of the literature identifies China as being one of few countries with a higher suicide rate for women than men, which seems to be primarily attributable to an excess of suicide fatalities among younger women residing in rural areas[2,5-7,9]. Younger persons (<40 years), however, were excluded from our study.…”

“…In most countries, mortality rates due to suicide are higher among men than women[4]. However, this relationship is reversed in China, with suicide fatalities being more common among women than men[2,5-7]. In addition, some studies have demonstrated greater mortality due to suicide in rural areas than urban areas in China[2,5-8].…”

Social and Geographical Inequalities in Suicide in Japan from 1975 through 2005: A Census-Based Longitudinal Analysis

“…All six prefectures in the Tohoku region (the northeastern district of the main island) and the Niigata Prefecture (a neighboring prefecture to the Tohoku region) were classified as having the highest suicide risk, whereas some prefectures in the Kanto, Kinki, and Chugoku regions (central or western districts of the main island) were classified as having the lowest suicide risk. Although it has been reported that prefectures with high suicide rates are located in the Tohoku region [43], no studies have provided suggestive evidence of emerging common ecologic effects of place where people live [44] by adjusting for individual age and occupation in each prefecture. The present study applied the same adjustment strategy across 47 prefectures throughout the study period, and it is unlikely that the widening geographical inequalities simply reflect an omitted compositional effect (e.g., health behaviors such as alcohol consumption [45]–[48] and smoking [49], [50], social support [51], and living arrangement [52]).…”