Suicides rise in Japan, about 90 take their lives every day
Posted : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:51:47 GMT
By : dpa
Tokyo - The number of people who killed themselves in Japan rose in 2009, exceeding 30,000 for 12 years in a row, the National Police Agency said Tuesday in a preliminary report. The number of suicides compared with 2008 increased by 504 to 32,753 people, the fifth-highest number on record, the agency said. Some 23,406, or 71.46 per cent, of the suicides were men.
On average, 90 suicides took place per day, which suggests that almost 1,000 people were on the brink of suicide on any given day of the year, experts said.
Japan's prolonged economic slumps are mainly deemed responsible for the increase of suicides after 1998, when their number surpassed 30,000 for the first time.
In 2008, health problems, including work-related depression, were a prime motive for taking one's life, accounting for 47 per cent of the year's suicides, while economic reasons constituted 23 per cent and family problems 12.1 per cent, the agency said.
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