Suicides above 30,000 for 13th year
Joblessness, family troubles increasingly cited as causes
Kyodo News
Suicides eased to 31,690 last year but stayed above the 30,000 mark for the 13th year running, meaning an average of nearly 90 people took their lives each day, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
While the rate is down 3.5 percent from 2009, the number who killed themselves because they couldn't find a job jumped 19.8 percent to 424.
Suicides triggered by family troubles also surged, climbing 9.2 percent to 4,497 compared with 2009.
The NPA said it will step up efforts to offer counseling and other services because the persistently high suicide rate is apparently linked to a "deep freeze" in the job market, as well as to the weakening of interpersonal relationships in society.
The number of suicides caused by reasons that could be deduced from notes and other materials left behind totaled 23,572, with the bulk of the deaths (15,802) laid to mental and physical health problems, followed by economic reasons (7,438).
A total of 1,207 people killed themselves over strained relations with spouses, while 575 did so because of poor ties with parents or children. Another 157 committed suicide over worries about how to raise children and 317 due to exhaustion from caring for relatives or others requiring nursing care.
Suicides caused by economic reasons, however, fell 11.2 percent, indicating that debts, personal bankruptcies and other financial distress caused by the global financial crisis that erupted in autumn 2008 might have eased a bit as the economy began to recover, the agency said.
But it also said the enforcement of more stringent regulations on loan-sharking was another reason for the drop in finance-related suicides.
