Suicides up 4.5% in Japan

Written By: guyjin on September 30, 2009 15 Comments

According to a report in Japan Today yesterday, suicides in Japan have increased 4.5% over last year for the January to August period, amid concerns that this could pass the record figure of more than 34,000 set in 2003. Some 22,362 people committed suicide in the first 8 months of the year, up 971 over the same period last year. This is almost 100 such deaths per day, and is a very disturbing trend.

In August alone, 2,497 people killed themselves, which is a 66% increase over last year. To put this in some perspective, in 2005 there were a total of 2,101 suicide related deaths in Australia in the entire year. Indeed, Australia has steadily maintained a rate of about 10-11 suicide deaths per 100,000 population (comparable with Canada and the US), while Japan’s rate is closer to 24-25. This places the Japanese rate in a comparable range with nations such as Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Ukraine (according to 2005, 2006 figures). In Japan, suicide is the leading cause of death in people under 30, and up to 70% or more of suicides are men.

The Japanese government have conceded that more action needs to be taken on this worrying statistic, with the release of a counter-suicide White Paper in 2007. This marked a stronger effort at pushing for more research into the reasons for the high rates in Japan, after society had long ignored the issue. In recent times, there has also been a rise in ‘web suicides’, where typically young people in their 20s or 30s meet on the internet and arrange to die together. But in spite of the high level of media interest in the phenomenon, it remains a relatively small fraction of the overall suicide problem.

In truth, there is still very little known about all of the reasons for the high suicide rates in Japan. It is assumed that economic issues, depression, and social pressures are largely responsible, but a great deal more research and understanding is needed. Mental health care in itself is a major issue in Japan, with resources and training still needing to be improved. The issue of suicide is one that needs urgent attention.

In Japanese culture, ’seppuku’, or its most well known form ‘harakiri’ (literally ‘to cut the belly’) are a ritual form of suicide that is a thing of legend. This was originally part of the bushido samurai code, to avoid falling into enemy hands or to avoid shame. It was also a means of restoring or protecting honor, but was limited to the samurai caste. It is unclear to what extent, if any, these kind of motivations exist in modern-day cases. It is far more likely in my opinion that more modern social issues are at work, but as I have said above, far more research is needed to form a clearer understanding, in order for the continuing increase in suicides to be stemmed.