Suicide and Japan

Report - 13.07.2009

According to the most recent data (2006) of the World Health Organization, the death cause of 23.7 in 10000 persons of the Japanese population is suicide  and a Japanese kills himself/ herself every 15minutes somewhere in Japan. These facts have made Japan rank at the eighth palce among the suicidal countries, gaining a name called "suicide nation".Why is the tendency for suicide is high in Japan.In this report,The causes of suicide,and suicide prevention in Japan is explained.

Why has Japan become a suicide country? According to the Japanese media,internet group suicides have become a big reason for the sudden rise of the suicidal rate.Internet suicide means a group of people meeting in the world wide web, and then the group killing themselves as a group. It is said that in year 2006, nearly 100 people had died by internet group suicides. Now, as suicide sights have become very common ,internet related suicides have become dangerously high. Even though the Japanese media accuse the internet

, the Japanese researchers are pointing the finger at the media. For an example, when the media broadcast news and information about suicides to the public, even they are not intentional, new suicide methods and tricks are handed over to the public. When the media repeatedly talks about the suicides in news and talk shows, the public can not help thinking that killing themselves is one good option for problem solving. When these suicide incidents catch fame in television and films, the pepole tend to kill themselves for publicity.

In my opinion the economic recession is the biggest effect for the rising suicide epidemic. Recently, due to the unemployment and rising prices have made people very miserable. When a person is unemployed, the disadvantage affects the whole family,and the inability to handle the problems drives him to choose suicide as the solution. unpayable loans add to the stress and suicide become the only way out. In year 2007 nearly 1733 people had killed themselves due to unplayable loan problems. In addition the depression due to 

stress and over work ,has also become a big cause.According to the Japan Times online edition ,in year 2007 the suicide rate due to depression has been reported as 28 percent. According to the facts given above, it is clear that the economic recession is responsible  not only for the high unemplpoyment rates and the depression rates, but also for the high suicidal rate.

When referring to the table1, in 2006 1969 persons ofthe young age group of 2 to 24 years have killed themselves. Most of the group members are school or university students and  the reasons can be pointed out such like slow learner, low report cards and bullying. When compared to the data of 2005, in year 2006, suicides related to the school has rose in 28.2 percent. Among the reasons,bullying by seniors in the schools and companies has become the first cause. Yet, the highest rate of suicides are reported from the age group of 55 to 64 years.According to the World Health Organization report of suicide rates 2006, 5 to 44 age group reports 10166 persons while the 45 to 75 age group reports a striking 19601 persons. In other words the elderly persons` sicide rate is noticeably high. Why is the elderly sicide rate is high? According to a research of the Guardian newspaper of England, 50% of the elderly persons kill themselves due to illnesses. As the medical expenses are extremely high the elders are inevitably struck.As the children cannot care for their aged parents due to their own work and family problems, when the old parents become ill, it obiviously becomes a lonely battle. So then hey decide to take the easiest way out without troubling anyone around. As this age group is mostly consisted of pensioners, and the low pension cannot defy the high life expenses. This leads to loans  which again results in unplayable loads of money which leads to suicides.According to the

the guardian, 15% of suicides of the elderly population is due to loans.

In the suicide boom of 1998,35% suddden rise was noted wich w followed for 11 consecutive years. From the specialists point of view, as the medical facility standard is very high, the deaths by traffic accidents and other deaths have fallen drastically highlighting the suicide rates. But still you cannot ignore the fact that the high suicide rate has become a social epidemic. Due to the suicides ,Japan loses a large amount of the force labor  meaninglessly. In addition to that the suicides indicate the low state of mentality in Japanese. To stand up for a beautiful strong future ahead, a strong mental status is a basic need. Whe talkin about the mental problems the depression comes up first.The most important things in controlling the depression is to give good counselling, medical care and more importantly solve the matters which lead people to menatal depression. Counselling  centres and suicide prevention organizations play a big role in these cases.The JApanese 

governmant has executed a  2.2billion yen project to decrease the suicide rate by 20% by the year 2016. As a result putting up counseling centres and depression preventing steps are done. But yet the suicide rate has continued to hold is high rate and, not showing a little sign of decrease, points out the the governments project has notreached it s goals in the least. In my personla point of view, the economic recession is the biggest problem .Suicide prevention is also an important step but paying attention to the fact of regaining the economic stability would be more effective. At least raising the pensions and facility money are some of the simplest actions that can be taken by the government.As this high suicide rate puts a black mark on a developed country, to prevent suicides,the economic stability should be regained and established very soon.