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Suicide: Japan's Growing Nightmare
by Matt Goerzen
In the past several years, much has been written about suicides and their connection to high unemployment rates in Japan. Dire statistics show that in the years since 1998, Japan's suicide numbers have topped the 30,000 mark annually. This has the general population, as well as health and social welfare critics around the world taking notice.
Newsweek and Time magazines have both covered the phenomenon, and each time one of the regular Japanese language newspapers comes out with a higher unemployment figure, they tie them together with the growing suicide problem, and with a great deal of justification.
There is an unhappy little spot near the base of Mount Fuji called the Aokigahara woods which happens to be one of the most infamous places in Japan for suicidal people to do themselves in. According to figures released by the Fuji-Yoshida police station in Yamanashi Prefecture this year, approximately 78 suspected suicide victims were found hanging from the trees, an increase from the former record of 73 found back in 1998.
Statistics from the World Health Organization show that the majority of suicide victims are males from age 40 to the mid-60s. Many of these men committed suicide because of a feeling of dishonouring the family name. Others simply watched their companies let them go after years of devoted work, and couldn't find gainful employment because of their age.
The importance of family life
But this is changing. Psychiatrist Hidetoshi Nishijima, an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association, in an interview last year stated that the importance of family life to the normal Japanese individual has gradually replaced the "perception of lifetime employment at one company," and the importance of a job.
"An increasing number of employees do not favour working long overtime hours," said Nishijima.
However, If you compare the unemployment rates of Japan to other developed countries, the numbers don't quite add up. According to Japan Information Network's international rates for 2002, Japan stacked up pretty well. The highest was Italy at 9.4 per cent, followed by France with 8.7, the European Union at 8.3, Germany with 8.2, Canada with 7.7, America at 5.8, and Japan falling just below that with 5.4 per cent. The only country on the list that scored lower was the United Kingdom with 5 per cent unemployment.
But according to Nishijima, the number of suicides in Japan is higher
than in other countries, relative to its population.
"The suicide rate per 100,000 people was about 20 until 1997," said Nishijima, "but rose to 26.1 persons in 1998, slightly below Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which have the world's highest suicide rate, and Russia, Hungary and Slovenia where the suicide rate is 30 per 100,000 people."
http://www.theforeigner-japan.com/ar...00304/news.htm
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