Suicide Japan | Tokyo Counseling Services

Suicide Japan
s a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist working in Japan for over 20 years, I would like to put forward a perspective on the unacceptably high suicide numbers in Japan. Mental health professionals in Japan have long known that the reasons for the high suicide rate are unemployment, bankruptcies, and the increasing levels of stress on businessmen and other salaried workers who have suffered enormous hardship since the post-"bubble" economy hit a low point around 1997. Until that year, Japan had between 22,000 and 24,000 suicides a year. In 1998 the rate increased by around 35 percent, and since 1998 the number of people killing themselves each year in Japan has consistently remained over 30,000. The current worldwide recession is, of course, impacting Japan, so unless the new administration initiates very proactive and well funded local and nationwide suicide prevention programs and other mental health care initiatives, including tackling the widespread problem of clinical depression suffered by so many of the general population, it is very difficult to foresee the previous government's stated target to reduce the suicide rate to around 23,000 by 2016 as being achievable. On the contrary, the suffering that people who become part of these numbers have to endure may well stay at current levels. I would like to suggest that since many Japanese have high reading skills in English, any articles dealing with mental health issues in Japan provide contact details for hotlines and support services for people who are depressed and feeling suicidal. Here are two useful telephone numbers for Japanese- and English-speakers who are feeling depressed or suicidal and need to get in touch with a mental health professional qualified in Japan — Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service): Japan 0120-738-556/Tokyo 3264-4343