Increase in Suicide and Mental Health in Japan

Provided by: Associated PressMay. 17, 2007
TOKYO (AP) - The number of Japanese who killed themselves because of work jumped by 52 per cent last year, while work-induced mental illness also hit a record high, a health official said Thursday.

Compensation paid to the families of workers who committed suicide due to work-related stress was paid out in a record 65 cases in 2006, compared with 42 the previous year, said Health Ministry official Junichiro Kurashige.The number of workers who received compensation for work-induced mental illness hit 205, up 61 per cent from a year earlier, Kurashige said, citing a recent government report.

Efforts by the government to encourage workers to apply for compensation were partly behind the rise, said Kurashige.Japan's suicide rate is among the highest in the industrialized world. More than 32,000 Japanese took their own lives in 2004, the bulk of them older Japanese suffering financial woes as the country struggled through a decade of economic stagnation.

The Japanese government has earmarked a substantial budget for programs to help those with depression and other mental illnesses.

See C-Health for more mental health news...

Comments

doug said…
hi kathlene!

this is one of your old high school classmates - doug barense. i'm the organizer of the next reunion and i’m trying to get email addresses of our classmates to make some $$ for our next reunion from a web site i created. i know this may sound like some amway thing but it is just a web site that allows you to use their social tools (sharing pictures, creating discussions, share events, etc.). the site defaults as a free site but you can pay to have ads on the site which then generate money for the site owners. there isn’t a guarantee we’ll make money but it is free to use unlike sites like classmates.com so that is why i chose it. here is a link to the site:

http://zhs1986.ning.com/

i’m hoping that you’ll sign up for the site and also share it with those you keep in touch with from zhs class of 1986. i’ve tried to find emails from other classmates from the book we got at the 20th reunion but your blog was the only thing i could find to contact someone.

fyi - i have a blog i maintain for the guys from zhs class of 1986 i still keep in contact with. check it out for some old pictures of some young guys and some other, hopefully, funny stuff:

http://pointersistersandbrothers.blogspot.com/

i hope to hear from you! here is my email address:

doug at barense dot com

thanks!
doug

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