Taeko Watanabe awoke one cold March night and found a trail of blood in the hallway, a bloody cleaver on her son Yuki’s bed and no trace of him in the house. Then police discovered a suicide note in his bedroom.
“They found him in a canal by the temple and wrapped him in a blanket. After an autopsy, he came home in a coffin. I fell apart,” she said, eyes welling up as she sat by a photograph of Yuki and a Buddhist altar laden with flowers and Fuji apples.
Yuki, who was 29 when he died in 2008, was one of many who committed suicide that year in Japan’s Akita Prefecture, 450km north of Tokyo. For nearly two decades, Akita had the highest suicide rate in the nation, which itself has the highest rate in the G7.
Photo: Reuters
However, things have changed, Watanabe said, adding that if her son faced the same situation now, “he would never have died. There are people who can prevent it.”
Watanabe, who contemplated suicide after Yuki’s death, now leads a suicide survivors group, part of national efforts that have brought Japanese suicides down by nearly 40 percent in 15 years, exceeding the government target.
Akita’s are at their lowest in 40 years.
These efforts took off nationally in 2007 with a comprehensive suicide prevention plan, as academics and government agencies identified at-risk groups.
In 2016, regions got more freedom to develop plans that fit local thinking.
Corporations, prompted by lawsuits from families of those who allegedly took their lives because of overwork, have made it easier to take leave, more offer psychological support and a law caps overtime.
The government has mandated annual stress tests in companies with more than 50 employees.
Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way to avoid shame or dishonor, and getting psychological help was stigmatized.
However, when suicides hit a peak of 34,427 in 2003, it alarmed policymakers and drew foreign attention, often a catalyst for change in Japan.
“For a long time, thinking was that suicide was a personal problem and so the government didn’t really deal with it — not just Akita, but the whole country,” said Hiroki Koseki, an Akita civil servant in charge of suicide prevention.
Suicides have multiple causes, but experts have said that Akita has so many because of its remoteness, lack of jobs, long winters, accumulating debt and a large number of isolated and lonely older people.
In 1999, Akita’s governor became the first in Japan to budget for suicide prevention. Amid positive media coverage, citizen and volunteer suicide prevention groups sprung up. Akita, with a population of just 981,000, now has one of the largest citizen help networks in Japan.
Akita began depression screening and public health workers checked in on at-risk people.
Akita also has an ever-growing network of “gatekeepers” — people trained to identify those contemplating suicide and, if needed, put them in touch with help.
Anybody can undergo several hours of training from Akita public health personnel and take part.
In addition, Akita has volunteer “listeners” — people like 79-year-old Ume Ito, who talks to at-risk people, many of whom are older, for hours at a time.
“About 70 to 80 percent of those we deal with say they want to die, but while they talk they stop thinking about suicide and eventually say: ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you,’” she said.
Akita’s suicide rate has fallen from a high of 44.6 per 100,000 people in 2003 to 20.7 last year, preliminary data showed — a drastic improvement, but still the sixth-highest nationally.
Japan’s suicides have fallen from the 2003 peak to 20,598, while the rate dropped from 27 per 100,000 people to 16.3. The government aims to hit 13 per 100,000 people by 2027.
However, 543 Japanese aged 19 and younger killed themselves last year, a 30-year high.
Japanese youths often drop out of community activities and focus on school affairs by junior high, limiting possible confidants.
“Just at the time when stress increases for them, their world narrows,” Nakasone Yasuhiro Peace Institute suicide researcher Yoshiaki Takahashi said. “We need to open things out.”
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