I came across this short article in an recent copy of the Washington Post about an increase in the suicide rates in Japan. Staggeringly over 100 people a day commit suicide!
That’s over 36,000 a year! Which puts Japan at eighth place in this World Health Organisation (WHO) collated league table behind Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Slovenia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Latvia and at three times the level of the UK. The Japanese figure has remained over 30,000 per year for the past 10 years!
Various reasons are quoted for this figure including the continuing world-wide economic downturn of which Japan is being particularly hard hit.
However, one recent case highlighted a different reason. Yukiko Shimizu whose father had died when she was 8, had given up quite a successful acting and singing career to look after her mother who had dementia, it is thought that she was becoming overwhelmed with the stress of this task.
Where does the UK fit in this league table? According to these figures from the Office for National Statistics, UK suicide rates continue to fall, although the latest figures are for the end of 2007. However, we’re all familiar with the reporting of the cluster of suicides in Wales over the past few years and according to these figures from Defra, the high rates of suicides in the faming communities.
Whatever the cause or reasons for these world-wide figures, it’s sad that so many people are driven to this fatal decision.
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