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Japan's suicide rate surges amidst pandemic, with women, children leading spike
By AFP - January 22, 2021 @ 2:11pm
(FILES) People walk along a corridor in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on November 30, 2020. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
TOKYO: The number of people taking their own lives in Japan rose for the first time in over a decade last year, as the pandemic reversed years of progress combatting a stubbornly high suicide rate.
Japan's health and welfare ministry said on Friday that 20,919 people died by suicide in 2020 according to preliminary data, up 3.7 per cent from the previous year. That compares with 3,460 deaths from coronavirus in the same period.
It marks 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 long had the highest suicide rate among the Group of Seven advanced countries – though regionally, South Korea registers higher figures. But the government has worked in recent years to better support people with mental health needs.
By AFP - January 22, 2021 @ 2:11pm

TOKYO: The number of people taking their own lives in Japan rose for the first time in over a decade last year, as the pandemic reversed years of progress combatting a stubbornly high suicide rate.
Japan's health and welfare ministry said on Friday that 20,919 people died by suicide in 2020 according to preliminary data, up 3.7 per cent from the previous year. That compares with 3,460 deaths from coronavirus in the same period.
It marks 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 long had the highest suicide rate among the Group of Seven advanced countries – though regionally, South Korea registers higher figures. But the government has worked in recent years to better support people with mental health needs.