INSIDE JAPAN from our view

Suicide rate soars in Japan  Japan Timies : In 1997, Japan was merely average when it came to suicide. As in France and Germany, there were then about 17 suicides per 100,000 people — normal, if you can call it that, for an economically advanced state. Then 1998 saw something of a suicide surge — to 27 per 100,000 — and Japan became what it has been ever since: "top class" among the developed nations. Each year more than 30,000 Japanese destroy themselves. That's roughly four times the number who die in traffic accidents.

Japan is notorious for high suicide rate. But there are many countries whose rates are as high as that of Japan, such as Austria, Sweden and so on. And even if you compare us with other “healthy” counties, our rate is not too high. That is why I cannot fully understand why we should be blamed of our ,so called, high suicide rate.

 Suicide has been very common throughout human history and all over the world. I could not imagine the society without suicide problems. I believe we do not have a certain criteria by which we can decide whether the suicide rate is high or not.

 However, it is true that Japanese are not likely to think that this problem is heavily connected to our society. We rarely talk about the solution for decreasing the rate or helping ill-hearted people. Instead, we tend to leave this problem to oneself. For example, the company I worked for now produces many suicides every year. But I never heard of the movement to solve these tragedies.

 It might be difficult to heal broken hearts. But I think we can do something for people who are feeling like committing suicides because of financial issues.