Japan Press Weekly

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2008 November 5 - 11 [WELFARE]

Japan’s suicide rate ranks eighth in the world

The government report on suicide published on October 31 revealed that 33,093 people committed suicide in Japan in 2007, the second highest-level in history, more than 30,000 for ten consecutive years.

Japan’s suicide rate of 23.7 per 100,000 ranks the eighth-highest in the world. Among G7 nations, Japan ranked the highest.

“Health problems” was cited for 63.3 cases in 2007.

The report explains social factors behind suicides by quoting from another report on “how suicides occur” (published in July) by a non-government project team of experts who surveyed the reason for suicides.

It said that there are four factors are behind suicides: job transfers, overwork, mistakes, and mental depression.

An increasing number of cases of insurance compensation claims are for work-related illnesses, including for mental health problems.

Citing actual cases, the government report states, “It is important to review the current systems and practices that lie behind these social factors” and stressed, “It is necessary to review the current patterns of work that force workers to work long hours.”

The Japanese Communist Party in its platform for the upcoming general election proposed concrete measures the government should take by stating, “In order to remove ‘social factors’ behind suicides, the JCP will make every effort to create a ‘society that cares for people’ by putting necessary measures into practice.”