ENGLISH DEBATE ON SOCIAL TOPICコミュのJapan's suicide rate, why so high?

There must be many issues to discuss on this topic.
Cultural background(some die for apology, or killing themselves is sometimes more brave and likable than disgraced and troubling in Japan), religious background(considering suicide to be sin is Christian and Islamic concept, I guess?), recent social uncertainty or economic crisis, lack of education, medical system or healthcare, changes of relationships among people in society... People are killing themselves for so many reasons.
I can just say, well, Japanese people tend to kill themselves rather than kill others. Japan's murder rate is quite low.

When the economy recovers, numbers of suicidal cases will decrease for a moment, but still there will be the tendency.

So, as a safety net, we need to create our environment not to let the weaks be alone. So that they can speak out for help and really be helped.
In school, students have to be always watched carefully. In company, management must be always observed. In home, in town, everywhere, we need a lot of eyes to watch and hands to help.
Social service will never be enough to do this. So we have to help each other.

Though, the modern society has got really complecated and there are just too many things to deal with for every person.
everybody is too busy to care others.
I wish we can make the world more simple.

Education is important, of course. Understanding is necessary. Let people know what had happened. Cases have to be told among people without prejudice.
I think we have to talk about suicide more often and open.

> I can just say, well, Japanese people tend to kill themselves rather
> than kill others. Japan's murder rate is quite low.
Good point. I heard somewhere that death by unnatural causes (i.e. at
the hand of a human, oneself or another) is the same in the USA as in
Japan but that in the USA, people were more likely to kill others and
in Japan people are more likely to kill themselves but that it worked
out about equal. I wonder if this is purely a coincidence or if the
mechanism and factors promoting each are related.

The most obvious factor to me is that Japanese life insurance will pay out for suicide as long as the person has had the policy for a few years. I find that utterly baffling - like fire insurance that will pay out for arson - but there it is. Combine that with tough economic times, and why wouldn't you see a lot of suicides?

reason is simple.

dipression is one of japanese lifestyle related diseas.

Die for Shame...This is a culture deep-rooted in oru history which people still suffer for. Does any other society have a similar idea?

there are many reasons for the high suicide rate in japan. first the history of how suicide was percieved here. having very little judeo christian influence, there has been no stigma attached to the act of offing one's self. On the contrary, it was seen as the honorable thing to do. couple that with the high depression rate in Japan and a socialization which does not teach basic problem solving skills, but encourages helplessness,and its a recipe for disaster. as a western person who as depressed and suicidal until 35 years old, I understand suicide in japan. the solution is nothing short of a revolution or renaissance, which Japan will never have.

One traditional trait in Japan that is fading away so fast is the social cohesion under common goal. Whether that was good or bad, it united the people together, allowed them to act cohesively without a question, and gave them such a comfort. But today, because such a tradition has gotten so weak, quite a few number of people feel left out and alone. Granted that there are many socio economic crises that can lead people to commit suicide. For every suicide case, there are different reasons. However I can say this much. From my experience of helping out those who are suicidal, most of them do not want to commit suicide. They are just being pushed far beyond their limits and sucked into the idea of taking their lives. If you get to say a few words to them at the most critical moments, many of them will change their minds and hold back their death wish to come true. Solution is simple: speak to them, open up your heart when you do that, and listen to them carefully. This solution, of course, does not solve individual problems they have, but it is a beginning and effective.

I actually have a hard fully believing that the high suicide rate in Japan is due to the age old "honorable suicide" dating back to the bushido mentality. This is particularly true with child/adolescent suicides, seeing how in this demographic the concept of honor is underdeveloped, if not completely alien, and the true understanding of self and identity have yet to mature enough to the point where "self sacrifice through suicide" would make a valid argument. A 12 year old who jumps off a bridge after failing his high school entrance exams isn't thinking "I have shamed my family, I must remedy this by taking my life", but is instead most likely thinking "I hate my life, I want to die" and just does it.

There's a great difference between ritualistic suicide like seppuku, which everyone who discusses this topic always seems to love to reference inappropriately, and run-of-the-mill suicide. The latter in most cases is an impulsive act that research has shown as something that can be thwarted relatively easily so long as the act is changed from a spontaneous act to an act that requires thinking. It has nothing to do with honor, but rather a pathology that potentially leads in unnatural self destructive tendencies.

The problem is definitely multifactorial, with things like religious values, family/social support and values, medical intervention, and popular methods of suicide that results in the prevalence and success rate of suicidal acts in any population.

Japan does lack the Judeo-Christian moral infrastructure that condemns suicide, but this by itself is excessively simplified.

A major problem that I've noticed in Japan, compared to the US, is the lack of understanding and treatment/therapy available for mental illnesses. Much of Japanese culture still views mental illness like depression and anxiety disorders as a weakness, laziness, something that can be fixed if the person just tried, but it's not that simple. Most people, including those in the school system, do not know how to recognize the signs of depression of risk factors for suicide. If a child is suffering from depression, if he doesn't know how to seek help, or if those he goes for help don't take his complaints seriously, a potential opportunity for intervention is lost. Not only toward children, but adults with chronic mental illness also suffer from much misunderstanding and are looked upon in a condescending manner rather than as people needing medical help.

Not only is there insufficient public knowledge, the medical system in Japan doesn't seem to have a very good way of addressing the issue of mental disease with a proper combination of medication and therapy. Throwing medicine at a person will not fix these issues, and sending patients to unskilled and non-understanding therapists will only make the situation worse.

Another major issue is the method. Women in the US have much higher attempted suicide rates than men, but men have higher successful suicides because men and women use different methods, with the men more often using more deadly means (eg: firearms). In Japan, fortunately firearms are not readily available, but with hanging and jumping being popular means (and both being very deadly), the rates of successful suicides naturally tend to be higher. If the trend for some reason were to change to something like attempting to overdose on pills, then the success rate may decrease, but I doubt this kind of change would take place unless some measure is able to be taken to make these popular methods more difficult to accomplish.

Unfortunately, to relate Yamato Damashii to the suicide you're seeing in Japan these days is a mere misunderstanding of what that term means. The tradition of ritual suicide in the name of honor is something of the past, and is a long lost part of Japanese history and culture that is falsely attributed to the product of mental illness and a nation's inadequacy in addressing the problem.

That's actually a good idea. I want to say that it was the Golden Gate Bridge, but they did a similar thing where they raised the height of the side railing so that people would actually take longer to get over it in order to jump off, and those few extra seconds of time allot.ted to rethink what they're doing has lead to a drastic decrease in suicide rates on that bridge. A prevention fence would probably end up being a very good deterrent, or rather a good tool to give people a few extra seconds to opt out

Today's「クローズアップ現代」↓
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It seems about suicide reserch that government started to work on.

Well, I guess 10-20 years behind the times is better than never.