TOKYO —
The number of people who took their own lives in Japan in 2011 was 30,651, the 14th consecutive year the figure has exceeded 30,000, the National Police Agency said in a white paper released Friday.
The white paper said there was a spike in suicides between April and June following the March 11 disaster, Sankei Shimbun reported. In May last year, 3,375 people killed themselves, more than 20% up on the same month a year earlier.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/30651-committed-suicide-in-2011-npa-reports
“The whole of Japanese society was anxious after the disaster, and we suspect that to be a contributing factor,” said an official of the Cabinet Office, adding suicides in May were particularly high among men in their 30s.
Last March’s quake and tsunami, which claimed 19,000 lives and sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a generation, greatly hampered the Japanese economy and led to a surge in corporate bankruptcies. Police said this contributed to an increase in the number of suicides among people who were unable to find new jobs.
Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, according to the OECD.
The number of people who took their own lives in Japan in 2011 was 30,651, the 14th consecutive year the figure has exceeded 30,000, the National Police Agency said in a white paper released Friday.
The white paper said there was a spike in suicides between April and June following the March 11 disaster, Sankei Shimbun reported. In May last year, 3,375 people killed themselves, more than 20% up on the same month a year earlier.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/30651-committed-suicide-in-2011-npa-reports
“The whole of Japanese society was anxious after the disaster, and we suspect that to be a contributing factor,” said an official of the Cabinet Office, adding suicides in May were particularly high among men in their 30s.
Last March’s quake and tsunami, which claimed 19,000 lives and sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a generation, greatly hampered the Japanese economy and led to a surge in corporate bankruptcies. Police said this contributed to an increase in the number of suicides among people who were unable to find new jobs.
Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, according to the OECD.