Cold-blooded politics is increasing suicide -- Akahata editorial, July 31

"Joblessness that followed corporate restructuring led to suicide," or "A family committed suicide to escape from threats by black-market money lenders." These are typical reasons for increasing suicides. Last year, 32,143 people committed suicide, more than 30,000 for five consecutive years.

Steep rise in hardships

Suicide is a calamity not only for oneself; it leaves deep scars on one's bereaved family. It's also a loss for society. Why do suicides occur so often?

We must look straight at the fact that the number of suicide motivated by "economic hardships" reached a record high of 7,940. An average of 22 people a day killed themselves because of debts, personal financial difficulties, and unemployment.

It is said that an increase in the unemployment rate is correlated closely with the increasing suicide rate. In fact, the number of people killing themselves exceeded 30,000 in 1998 amid a deep economic slump with an unemployment rate of more than four percent.

At a time when unemployment deprives people of the means of subsistence and drives them to death, Koizumi politics is cold-blooded in encouraging further corporate restructuring and reducing unemployment benefits, which is a safety net for the unemployed.

We cannot stand idly by when so many cases of suicide due to debt are reported. Especially, aggressive collection tactics by black-market loan sharks often drive borrowers to suicide as seen in a case in Yao City in Osaka where three family members killed themselves.

To prevent unnecessary deaths, police and administration must take advantage of the new law to regulate the black market and thoroughly clamp down on the black marketers.

It is also serious that suicide from excessive workloads and stresses in the workplace is increasing. Workers are forced to bear too much work and compete with each other for "better job performance" as a result of corporate restructuring and personnel cuts. They are on call 24 hours a day through computers and mobile phones. Their "emotional disorder" is rapidly increasing caused by too much fatigue and stress.

A survey of 4,000 randomly selected workers has found that 5.5 percent of respondents said, "I want to die." This is an aberrant response. Companies should now take the responsibility to protect employees' lives and health.

We cannot overlook the fact that those who committed suicides have left many children behind.

The number of such children under 20 has reached 90,000 in the year 2000, and it is estimated that nearly 10,000 orphans are being added every year.

The average monthly income of families with these children who lost their breadwinners is at about 140,000 yen (1,150 dollars), which is inadequate to maintain minimum living standards. Finding it hard to speak about their parents' death as "suicide," they are estranged from society despite their hope that their feelings be understood. Don't neglect the problem of children whose parents killed themselves; this is a message from these children. To answer the message is a high social responsibility.

Ranking at the top in the world in terms of the number of suicide cases, Japan could be called a "suicide big power." The rate of suicides is 25 per 10,000 people, next only to Hungary among 15 major countries. The rate is 2.5 times higher than that of the U.S.A., and 4.0 times of Britain and Italy, according to a survey by the Institute of Public Health.

The government must take drastic steps to prevent such suicides from taking place.

Asked about the causal relationship between suicide and the "structural reform" policy, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro answered, "Without structural reform, there would have been more pain." Nothing is so far from the truth as this.

For a more caring society

The Koizumi government's restructuring policy has produced a "competitive society" based on the law of the jungle, with 3.61 million unemployed and small- and medium-sized companies' bankruptcies of 19,000 cases a year. The government has destroyed almost every means of social welfare and employment insurance that sustain minimum living standards. It is undeniably the government's cold-hearted politics that has led more people to killing themselves.

Therefore, the need now is to immediately end the Koizumi "restructure" policy, and make a radical policy change that would effectively sustain people's lives.

Listen to the call of these children: "Don't leave some people close to you who are in difficulty. We need a society that cares for the weak."

The government must lose no time in taking effective preventive measures against suicides. (end)