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No. of suicides stays below 30,000 for third straight year

20 Comments

The number of recorded suicides in Japan in 2014 was 25,427 -- the third year in a row that the figure has been below 30,000, the National Police Agency (NPA) said in a report Thursday.

The number of suicides was above 30,000 for 14 straight years from 1998 to 2011. The figure for 2014 was 1,856 fewer than in 2013, a 6.8% drop.

By prefecture, Tokyo had the most suicides with 2,636, followed by Kanagawa with 1,422, Aichi (1,395) and Osaka (1,386). Tottori Prefecture had the lowest number at 114, the NPA report said.

The main reasons for suicide, as stated in suicide notes left behind, were mental and physical health problems in 12,920 cases, financial problems (4,144), family or relationship problems (3,644) and work-related issues (2,227), the NPA said.

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A better measure would be suicides per 100,000 people and by gender and age group. By those measurements, you'll find the highest suicidal bracket to be older men, most likely due to economic hardship, loneliness, etc.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

A better measure would be suicides per 100,000 people and by gender and age group. By those measurements, you'll find the highest suicidal bracket to be older men, most likely due to economic hardship, loneliness, etc.

@dcog9065

Below is the link to the main document released by the NPA (in Japanese) — all the data you could ever hope for, and then some. http://www.npa.go.jp/safetylife/seianki/jisatsu/H26/H26_jisatunojoukyou_01.pdf

The NPA is very thorough with its analyses. This PDF gives extensive breakdowns that include year-on-year since 1977, by age & gender, age & motive, occupation & motive, prefecture. Through its website, the NPA also released a number of other documents on Japan's suicide rates related to this.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Still too high, but it the good news is that it is an improvement.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Sad topic. Of all nationalities, it must be very hard to live up to being "Japanese" and meeting society's expectations. Japanese need to smile more. Put more "life into your years." NOT puting "more years onto a stressful life." -all work & no play makes Jack a dull day.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Makes you wonder how many are unrecorded.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

For a country that makes some of the most POTENT antidepressants, this country is very depressed

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Umbrella, the suicide rate dropped 30 times greater than the population dropped (6.8% vs 0.2%)

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The suicide rate is notably higher in Korea than Japan but it gets little attention in English. Chinese suicide rates are regarded as unreliable although in some recent years it has been suggested that the Chinese rate was higher than that of Japan. At 20.3 per 100,000 (males) the US is a relatively high rate country. Suicide experts consider the US rate substantially understated. If you want a country with a really high suicide rate, try Lithuania at 65.9 per 100,000, more than double the Japanese rate.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What I would like to see is what the percentage of the total population for each age range (decade) is per prefecture. This information would be much more useful to both professionals and the general public.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

This are the news that the so called third world countries dont know about so called advance countries?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Stress is the common factor in almost every suicide. The suicide act or the attempt of it is not always an indication someone wants to die. Suicide is, unfortunately, sometimes an accident. They don't mean to commit suicide. All they intended to do was make the attempt and get found in time. It doesn't always happen that way, but the gesture is their message. It's a cry for help and they want desperately for someone to know something's wrong.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Using Wikipedia as the source for Japan's 2014 estimate of the population the suicide rate per capita is 20.11 per 100,000.

The real question that I have is what is the total number of people that make an attempt or self harm. For example in the USA the total number of people who go to the hospital for hurting themselves on purpose(not necessarily with the intention of killing themselves) is around ~490,000

1 ( +1 / -0 )

heres a note, more people have died from suicide in the last 15~20yrs than all the people killed by natural disasters in the last 100yrs in Japan

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It is still too high and yes one is too high.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Geez JT doesnt want folks knowing that it is regurgitating it's own misinformed articles, and are now in the process of deleting their existence. Need to "create" news......well done.....

Moderator: It is not the same story. Today's story is based on an NPA report released today. Do not post this again. And our articles are not misinformed. Please lift the level of your posts which is among the lowest on the discussion board.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

25000 people kill themselves?? Wow, just wow.

40% of people are struggling with rubbish part time and temporary jobs, the stress must be tremendous and some people just crack. Then if you do have a job, they try to work you to death. The numbers of suicides may have fallen according to these figures but those in the know reckon the figure is much higher. To spare the bereaved families even further grief, some suicides are recorded as deaths from other causes.And of course the population is falling year by year, so even the real numbers themselves should be dropping.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Wow, talk about speculation...

dcog9065Mar. 12, 2015 - 04:48PM JST

A better measure would be suicides per 100,000 people and by gender and age group. By those measurements, you'll find the highest suicidal bracket to be older men, most likely due to economic hardship, loneliness, etc.

"Most likely"??? Where did you come up with these numbers? The link that Sensato posted shows a completely different result. Besides, the article itself says that 13,000 suicides were because of health problems. Additionally, Sensato's link says that only 19,000 suicides had a clear motive/reason.

umbrellaMar. 12, 2015 - 09:48PM JST

...but those in the know reckon the figure is much higher. To spare the bereaved families even further grief, some suicides are recorded as deaths from other causes.

"Reckon"????? "Much higher"????? How do you know this??? Honestly, I can't see this number being high at all.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

You folks are just a bunch of lemmings.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

mrkobayashi Yes thanks, you're right what you say. Still, even 25,000 people killing themselves is just so awful. just imagine if 25,000 died from disease or terrorism??

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

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