![]() ![]() Women make up a larger percentage of part-time workers in the hotel, food service and retail industries – where layoffs have been deep. ![]() There are several potential reasons for this. For comparison, male suicides rose almost 22% over the same time period. In October, suicides among women in Japan increased almost 83% compared to the same month the previous year. Although they represent a smaller proportion of total suicides than men, the number of women taking their own lives is increasing. The pandemic appears to have reversed that trend, and the rise in suicides has disproportionately affected women. While the reasons for Japan’s high suicide rate are complex, long working hours, school pressure, social isolation and a cultural stigma around mental health issues have all been cited as contributing factors.īut for the 10 years leading up to 2019, the number of suicides had been decreasing in Japan, falling to about 20,000 last year, according to the health ministry – the lowest number since the country’s health authorities started keeping records in 1978. The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also provide contact information for crisis centers around the world.In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-80.As of Friday, Japan’s total Covid-19 toll was 2,087, the health ministry said. The monthly number of Japanese suicides rose to 2,153 in October, according to Japan’s National Police Agency. In Japan, government statistics show suicide claimed more lives in October than Covid-19 has over the entire year to date. Mass unemployment, social isolation, and anxiety are taking their toll on people globally. “I constantly feel a sense of crisis that I might fall back into poverty.”Įxperts have warned that the pandemic could lead to a mental health crisis. “My salary was cut, and I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. But the coronavirus is bringing back the stress she used to feel. Now 43, Kobayashi has written books on her mental health struggles and has a steady job at an NGO. “I was really poor,” said Kobayashi, who spent three days unconscious in hospital after the incident. The first time, she was just 22 years old with a full-time job in publishing that didn’t pay enough to cover her rent and grocery bills in Tokyo. Eriko Kobayashi has tried to kill herself four times. ![]()
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