2007 "Anti-suicide Measures White Paper" approved by the Government

November 9, 2007, Tokyo: Current year saw several important developments in Japan aimed to tackle the growing problem of domestic suicides. According to the statistical date of the World Health organization (WHO) Japan ranks as the ninth highest in the world for the number of suicide victims. As shown at the map (pictured at left) the nation falls into the group of countries with suicide rate over 13 per 100,000 persons.

In February repeated cases of suicides and suicide attempts by Tamiflu takers, prompted a wide-ranging official survey.

In June the Government announced a plan to decrease the suicides, including depression-related by 20% within ten years.

In July the Japan National Center for Suicide Prevention initiated the first nation-wide survey on victims background.
In September a NGO confirmed that the first comprehensive survey on bereaved suicide victims families is completed.

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In October the MHLW mandated the prescription information to be revised for all SSRI and SNRI products to include warning for suicide risk in patients younger than 24 years.

On November 9, 2007 the Cabinet officially approved the 2007 "Anti-suicide Measures White Paper" (video coverage at left). Key statistics from the document: since 1998 the suicide rate in Japan has been increasing and now stands at 35.6 cases for males, while 10 cases for females per 100,000 population, as the total number of suicide attempts with fatal exit is more than 30,000 cases per year. Leading reasons for the suicides are social problems such as unemployment, debts and overwork. The most endangered group are males in 55-64 year age bracket - the highest in the survey, where lack of job security and health problems are cited as most common and the suicide rate reaches 55.5 per 100,000.

Additionally, it was confirmed again that cases with depression - untreated due to the cultural prejudices against psychiatric care are also one of the numerous. Earlier this year the Cabinet Office in the White Paper on Handicapped gave an estimated 1 million people suffering from emotional disorders, however the causal relation with suicide accidents has not been studied.

Data sourced from official publications, TBS News; additional content by JKS staff