Japan’s suicide rate will make you want to kill yourself

by 27 Comments

seppuku suicideHot hitting Ichiro Suzuki has hit over .300 every year he’s played in America. Likewise, Japan’s suicide rate has hit 30,000 every year for the last nine years.

Time to stop it with the baseball analogies.

32,155 (according to the Mainichi Daily News) people committed suicide in Japan in 2006, a 1.2 percent decrease from 2005. Surprisingly, most of the suicides were by the elderly. Almost all of the suicides were by those 50 and older, with rates increasing as the age goes up. This coincides with an announcement stating Japan’s fertility rate has gone up to 1.32 babies born per woman, up .06 points. I’ll let you interpret this however you want. You won’t see me getting caught up in this kind of discussion.

The one part of this study that is very surprising is the sheer number of elderly people killing themselves compared to the smaller number of teenagers (and children) killing themselves. I think that Americans have this perspective where they imagine all these teenagers, cramming for college entrance examinations from hell, who just can’t take it, run off to the nearest train station and make the leap (which is also not something people do as often anymore, since the victim’s family has to pay large sums of money to clean the body up). Instead, it is the elderly who are committing suicide. The study states that it is mostly because of health problems, though I have another theory. Recently, the whole “3-generation family structure” has been dying (no pun intended) in Japan, and the elderly are more often being put into homes. This would be very difficult for people of this generation to accept, because throughout their whole life they were taught to take care of their parents (I think it’s a good idea too). Now they are being shunned aside, and they no longer feel like they are useful to society anymore (can’t take care of those grandchildren, but none are being born anyways).

Either way, suicide is still a problem in Japan (no surprise there), and it doesn’t look like things are getting much better. Until the current younger generation makes it to old age, I don’t see this trend changing. Right now we have two very different mind-sets, and until they stop clashing, we won’t see suicide rates in the elderly drop anytime soon…As per teenage/children suicide rates, that will be a longer process to fix, and another article to write. There is, however, a lot of room for discussion, so, discuss away, if you’d like. I’ve barely even touched most of the issues relating to Japan’s suicide rate.

  • http://www.youtube.com/bokualec Alec

    I remember watching a documentary about depression in women after their husbands retire. For Japanese couple of a certain age, marriage was less about love and more about obligation and convenience. That wasn’t a problem though because the men would be at work from morning to night, and the women would be at home with the children. When the men retire though, the women find themselves having to actually talk to their husbands. In days gone by, men would have worked for much longer but now they’re retiring sooner for various reasons.

    Ah, just Googled it and it’s called Retired Husband Syndrome.

    I wonder how many of these suicides are of women as opposed to men.

  • Stacia

    Japan has a lot of weird issues…some, I find, deal with the fact that they don’t want to change their long-standing cultural values, which I totally understand. But when it comes to the point that the women don’t want to get married or have children because they want a career, and the birthrate goes down (which was the last I heard, so yay for birthrate increasing), sometimes change might be necessary. I read an article (on the Wii no less) about Japan’s lack of birth-rate and how they were just going to deal with it. No change. And like….some-odd years later the population would be…something really low like zero. lol Anyway, when you add that to the fact that apparently Japan has the lowest sex rate/pleasure as well…it just seems like Japan is being forced to deal with changes they don’t really want to right now. If any of what I said is bullcrap….I apologize. Blame the Wii. :)

  • http://www.youtube.com/bokualec Alec

    I remember watching a documentary about depression in women after their husbands retire. For Japanese couple of a certain age, marriage was less about love and more about obligation and convenience. That wasn’t a problem though because the men would be at work from morning to night, and the women would be at home with the children. When the men retire though, the women find themselves having to actually talk to their husbands. In days gone by, men would have worked for much longer but now they’re retiring sooner for various reasons.

    Ah, just Googled it and it’s called Retired Husband Syndrome.

    I wonder how many of these suicides are of women as opposed to men.

  • Stacia

    Japan has a lot of weird issues…some, I find, deal with the fact that they don’t want to change their long-standing cultural values, which I totally understand. But when it comes to the point that the women don’t want to get married or have children because they want a career, and the birthrate goes down (which was the last I heard, so yay for birthrate increasing), sometimes change might be necessary. I read an article (on the Wii no less) about Japan’s lack of birth-rate and how they were just going to deal with it. No change. And like….some-odd years later the population would be…something really low like zero. lol Anyway, when you add that to the fact that apparently Japan has the lowest sex rate/pleasure as well…it just seems like Japan is being forced to deal with changes they don’t really want to right now. If any of what I said is bullcrap….I apologize. Blame the Wii. :)

  • Onimusha Nosferatu

    i initially thought about the suicide club movie. it’s really interesting to me that elderly people are killing themselves. koichi’s explaination makes more sense than the health problems. i think part of this issue relates the the westernization of japan and the lack of open expression of feelings in japanese culture. in an odd way it may not be bad that the japanese population is shrinking since there is only a finite amount of room possible to put world’s population. i like that japan is such a psychological country with a calm exterior and with a brooding storm underneath.

  • Onimusha Nosferatu

    i initially thought about the suicide club movie. it’s really interesting to me that elderly people are killing themselves. koichi’s explaination makes more sense than the health problems. i think part of this issue relates the the westernization of japan and the lack of open expression of feelings in japanese culture. in an odd way it may not be bad that the japanese population is shrinking since there is only a finite amount of room possible to put world’s population. i like that japan is such a psychological country with a calm exterior and with a brooding storm underneath.

  • Nick

    I’ve seen a program on that, maybe the same one? Seems a real shame. Different to the point already given, but maybe it contributes too

  • Nick

    I’ve seen a program on that, maybe the same one? Seems a real shame. Different to the point already given, but maybe it contributes too

  • http://tofugu.com Erin

    Is .300 good? I guess it must be, since you idolize the man.

  • http://tofugu.com Erin

    Is .300 good? I guess it must be, since you idolize the man.

  • Sexy Beam

    It’s a sad fact that Japan does have a high suicide rate, but at least it’s not as bad as former Warsaw Pact countries.

  • Sexy Beam

    It’s a sad fact that Japan does have a high suicide rate, but at least it’s not as bad as former Warsaw Pact countries.

  • Josh

    CRAZY

  • Josh

    CRAZY

  • Mx Boy

    I been reading about that, if you want more information about the culture in Japan and the issues there, I recommend you to read The “Japanese mind” by Osamu Ikeno is a great book, I bought a couple of days ago “Shutting out the sun” by Michael Zielenziger is about the low birth rates and high suicide rates in Japan, I haven’t start reading it yet so I cant tell you to much about it, now I am reading “Confucius lives next door” about a guy who experiences the Japanese culture when he moved to Tokyo, and I have more book titles if anybody is interested in Japanese culture.

  • Mx Boy

    I been reading about that, if you want more information about the culture in Japan and the issues there, I recommend you to read The “Japanese mind” by Osamu Ikeno is a great book, I bought a couple of days ago “Shutting out the sun” by Michael Zielenziger is about the low birth rates and high suicide rates in Japan, I haven’t start reading it yet so I cant tell you to much about it, now I am reading “Confucius lives next door” about a guy who experiences the Japanese culture when he moved to Tokyo, and I have more book titles if anybody is interested in Japanese culture.

  • animerika

    That whole jumping into the train tracks immediately made me think Suicide Club then Gantz x(

    But that is sad, this also kinda reminded me of Nevada Girl for some reason. If anything, I’m with you, kids should take care of their parents, and this is a really sad reason for the elderly to die and I’d probably feel the same strong depression if I had kids who wouldn’t take care of me.

  • animerika

    That whole jumping into the train tracks immediately made me think Suicide Club then Gantz x(

    But that is sad, this also kinda reminded me of Nevada Girl for some reason. If anything, I’m with you, kids should take care of their parents, and this is a really sad reason for the elderly to die and I’d probably feel the same strong depression if I had kids who wouldn’t take care of me.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Didn’t Nevada-tan kill another girl, though? She never killed herself, right? Still, she was one twisted elementary schooler D:

  • http://www.tofugu.com Erin

    Didn’t Nevada-tan kill another girl, though? She never killed herself, right? Still, she was one twisted elementary schooler D:

  • http://rocmegamanx.deviantart.com Rock Martin

    This is kind of depressing in itself.

    I mean, in feudal Japan, people once committed suicide to regain lost honor to their families.

    Now it’s either children or teens who commit suicide because of the pressure of their society to work and study hard and if they fail, then they’ll be a failure in real life(if I’m wrong here, let me know) or adults/seniors who commit suicide because of the reasons mentioned in this article.

    I’m unsure how the suicide rate compares to any other country in the world, but I am glad I haven’t been a self-victim.

  • http://rocmegamanx.deviantart.com Rock Martin

    This is kind of depressing in itself.

    I mean, in feudal Japan, people once committed suicide to regain lost honor to their families.

    Now it’s either children or teens who commit suicide because of the pressure of their society to work and study hard and if they fail, then they’ll be a failure in real life(if I’m wrong here, let me know) or adults/seniors who commit suicide because of the reasons mentioned in this article.

    I’m unsure how the suicide rate compares to any other country in the world, but I am glad I haven’t been a self-victim.

  • Ryohei Kitamura

    I’m here in japan at the moment and im must say that i can confirm that people are tired of their lives, but people are stupid they call the police and when the police come ONLY then they start to do their seppuku process. The rate is always about people between the 20 until 50+

    i haven’t seen much childs making and end to their lives, maybe they wait until their favourite anime on tv is over?

  • Ryohei Kitamura

    I’m here in japan at the moment and im must say that i can confirm that people are tired of their lives, but people are stupid they call the police and when the police come ONLY then they start to do their seppuku process. The rate is always about people between the 20 until 50+

    i haven’t seen much childs making and end to their lives, maybe they wait until their favourite anime on tv is over?

  • GJB995

    I would say it is a combanation of all the things you hought because It has to get bad to consider it.

    Jjust think what the family and friends of those people are going through It is a problam that feeds on itself.

  • GJB995

    I would say it is a combanation of all the things you hought because It has to get bad to consider it.

    Jjust think what the family and friends of those people are going through It is a problam that feeds on itself.

  • Anonymous

    I think he meant 300 not .300.