Society Child suicides in Japan hit record high in 2024

Among the suicides of children, 15 were elementary school students, 163 were junior high school students, and 349 were high school students. It was the highest total since 1980, when such statistics were first collected. By gender, 239 of the children were male, down 20 from the previous year's total, and 288 were female, up 34. The ministry released the 2024 provisional figures on Jan. 29. Overall, according to the figures, 20,268 people killed themselves in Japan in 2024, a decrease of 1,569, or 7.2 percent, from 2023. It was the second consecutive year of decline. By gender, 13,763 were male and 6,505 were female. The number of suicides per 100,000 population was 16.3, down from 17.6 in 2023. By prefecture, Iwate had the highest suicide rate, at 22.9 per 100,000 population, followed by Yamanashi's 21.9 and Niigata's 21.2.

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Suicide Hotlines Japan:

• TELL Japan
• Yorisoi Hotline
• Befrienders Japan (in Japanese)

The reasons or motives for suicides among people aged 19 or younger included school-related problems such as poor grades and inability to decide a future course, health problems such as depression, and family issues such as bad relations with parents.

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mdchachi said:

I think online connectivity/social media is a significant factor. There are many dark corners of the Internet.

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dracuella said:

It doesn't even have to be dark corner, you can just look at children's/young people's facebook pages. Some girls who didn't like my niece took a wide angle picture of her and photoshopped her into their picture, making her look obese compared to them. Any adult seeing this would most likely be very "eh.." about it but at the tender age of 12, she was very self-conscious and absolutely heartbroken a picture like that was online.
Girls can be absolute monsters.

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In 2024, a record number of pupils and students died by suicide, even as the overall number of suicides fell to its second-lowest level since records began, according to a report released by the health ministry on 28 March. The total number of suicides for the year was 20,320—down by 1,517 compared to 2023, making it the second lowest since statistics were first compiled in 1978. However, the number of suicides among primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary school students rose by 16, reaching a record high of 529.

Suicides among men decreased for the first time in three years, falling by 1,061 to 13,801. The number of women also declined for the second year, down from 456 to 6,519. "Health-related issues" were cited most frequently as the cause or motive in 12,029 cases. This was followed by "economic and livelihood difficulties" and "family-related problems."

While the general trend was downward, suicides among females aged 19 and under rose by 51, marking an increase of approximately 13% from the previous year within that age group. By occupation, "students and pupils" was the only category to show a rise.

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thomas said:

I had to look up the meaning of "unalive".

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