Japan Press Weekly

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2008 July 2 - 8 [LABOR]

24,000 workers committed suicide between 2004 and 2006

A “suicide white paper” shows that 24,000 workers committed suicide in Japan between 2004 and 2006.

The “white paper” was published on July 4 by a project team made up of economists, medical doctors, and representatives of nonprofit organizations studying various aspects of suicides. The first comprehensive report on suicides of this kind contains local police data.

It reveals that the suicide rate is higher in major industrial areas like Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture, the home to global automobile manufacturer Toyota.

The “white paper” pointed out that in areas of 50 local police stations with high rates of suicides among workers, there are many people who are working under the industrial hierarchy of parent companies exploiting subcontractors, and sub-sub contractors.

The project team found that risk factors for suicides are excessively long work hours, arbitrary job cuts, and the unstable status of temporary workers.

Later in the day, representatives of the project team Shimizu Yasuyuki and Sawada Yasuyuki, Associate Professor of Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, submitted the “white paper” to the state minister in charge of suicide affairs Kishida Fumio.