The Rise in Japanese Women Suicides Saanvi Kunisetty

 The Rise in Japanese Women Suicides

Saanvi Kunisetty

The current pandemic and its effect on our mental health can perhaps be aptly depicted in one of our world’s most pressing problems- suicide. As the pandemic has been taking a toll on the residents of Japan, women have begun to commit suicide more than ever before, unable to handle the pressure that has been coming along with COVID. Since October of 2020, Japan has recorded over 2,100 suicides committed. Still, Japan has been disclosing majority of its suicide information, data, and statistics. The most recent statistics before now were received in 2018. The US feels that if Japan released more data on suicides, we could further analyze the pandemic’s impact on peoples’ mental health, and study which groups are the most vulnerable.

Japan has struggled with one of the highest suicide rates for quite a while now. As of 2016, its suicide rate was 18.5 per 100,000 people, almost double the world’s average. So why is their suicide rate so high? Some of the possible contributing factors could include a lot of pressurized, long, complex, and sophisticated working hours, strict and harsh school work and pressure, social isolation, and cultural stigma. Fortunately, the number of suicides in Japan began decreasing since the year of 1978. But, the pandemic seems to have reversed these effects.

Resources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/28/asia/japan-suicide-women-covid-dst-intl-hnk/index.html