Asia-Pacific News
Number of suicides in Japan surpasses 30,000 for 12th year
Dec 25, 2009, 9:20 GMT
Tokyo - The number of people who committed suicide in Japan has exceeded 30,000 for 12 years in a row, the National Police Agency said Friday.
From January to November this year, 30,181 Japanese killed themselves, the agency said. Of them, 21,566 were men and 8,615 were women.
On average, 90 suicides took place per day, which suggests that nearly 1,000 people were on the brink of suicide on any given day of the year, experts said.
Japan's protracted economic downturns are mainly deemed responsible for the increase of suicides after 1998, when their number surpassed 30,000 for the first time.
Health problems, including work-related depression, were a prime motive for taking one's life in 2008, making up 47 per cent of the year's 32,249 suicides, while economic reasons accounted for 23 per cent and family problems 12.1 per cent, experts said.
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