Japan suicide rate ranked 4th among high-income countries, WHO report says [View all]

[yuiyoshida]

About 803,900 people worldwide are estimated to have killed themselves in 2012, a World Health Organization report revealed Thursday.

Japan, which had 29,442 suicides in the same year, ranked fourth among high-income countries in terms of the number of suicides per 100,000 people, following South Korea, Lithuania and Russia.

Suicides in low- and middle-income countries accounted for nearly 75.5 percent of the total, the report said.

Many of the deaths were among those aged 70 and over. Among people aged 15-29, suicide was the second-leading cause of death after traffic accidents. Almost twice as many men committed suicide as women.
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2 school girls jump to death from Tokyo apartment building

National Sep. 06, 2014 - 03:30PM JST ( 1 )

TOKYO —

Two elementary school girls, aged 11 and 12, apparently jumped to their deaths from an apartment building in Tokyo’s Ota Ward, police said Saturday.

According to police, the girls—who were classmates—were found dead in the asphalt parking lot near the entrance to the building at around 3:30 p.m. Friday, TBS reported.

The building is nine stories high. Police said the girls appear to have jumped from the stairwell between the 7th and 8th floors. TBS quoted police as saying the girls’ shoes and a suicide note were left at the scene but declined to give details about what the note said.

Police said the 11-year-old girl lived with her family in the apartment building, while her 12-year-old classmate lived nearby.

A school official told media that he was unaware of any bullying incidents involving the girls who were both at school on Friday.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/2-school-girls-jump-to-death-from-tokyo-apartment-building

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140906p2g00m0dm060000c.htmld

Record high for youth suicide in Japan (from 2010)
The number of students who committed suicide last year in the country hit a record figure of 1,029, up 101 cases or 10.9 per cent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said Friday.

It was the first time that the number exceeded 1,000 since the NPA started recording statistics in 1978.

The NPA also reported the total number of suicides across the nation has exceeded 30,000 for 14 consecutive years up to 2011, though the number declined by 1,039, or 3.3 per cent, to 30,651 from the previous year.

Of the students, the number of university students who killed themselves rose by 16 to 529 from the previous year while the number of high school students who did so increased by 65 to 269, according to the NPA. The combined figures accounted for about 80 per cent of the total number of students who committed suicide.

By age group, the number of people 19 or younger who committed suicide rose by 12.7 per cent to 622 from the previous year, and the figure for those in their 20s increased by 2 per cent to 3,302.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20120310-332649.html#sthash.4TjmLYbP.dpuf

more: http://thediplomat.com/2013/01/searching-for-answers-japans-suicide-epidemic/