The number of people taking their own life in Japan rose for the first time in more than a decade last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic reversed years of progress combating a stubbornly high suicide rate.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare yesterday said that 20,919 people died by suicide last year, according to preliminary data, up 3.7 percent from the previous year.
That compared with 3,460 deaths from COVID-19 in the same period.
It marked the first year-on-year rise in suicides in more than a decade, with women and children in particular taking their lives at higher rates.
Japan has suffered a smaller COVID-19 outbreak than some other nations and a fall in suicides during the first half of last year raised hopes that the pandemic’s impact might be limited, but the figures began to rise in July after a first state of emergency was lifted in May, a pattern experts say tracks with data showing suicides often drop in the first phase of crises, before rising sharply.
Mental health experts have warned that suicides could rise during the pandemic. In Japan, the rise is the first since 2009, in the wake of the global economic crisis, but it follows a different pattern from previous years.
“The coronavirus pandemic forced people into unusual circumstances,” a ministry official said. “In particular, problems experienced by women have been highlighted, which are thought to have led to suicides.”
Suicides among Japanese men actually fell slightly from 2019, but 14 percent more suicides were recorded among women.
“The coronavirus has highlighted Japan’s gender gap,” added Yayo Okano, a professor of feminism at Doshisha University in Kyoto. “Household burdens on women have long been disproportionately heavy in Japan and their burdens have increased because of coronavirus.”
Rising suicides among children have also alarmed experts: more than 300 schoolchildren died by suicide in the eight months to November last year, up nearly 30 percent from the same period a year earlier.
“Students are feeling anxiety about their future,” said Akiko Mura, a counselor at the Tokyo Suicide Prevention Center. “They don’t know what to do. They used to be able to release their stress by talking to their friends, but now they can’t even go to karaoke.”
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