http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...de-rate-cut-cultural-resistance-mental-health
自杀是日本年轻男子第一杀手, 在日本, 心理疾病超过任何其他疾病。同样是老龄化的中国, 平均收入低的多, 政治环境差得多, 却没有这么高的自杀率, 十强都算不上。
Japan vows to cut suicide rate by 20% over 10 years
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Thursday 4 September 2014 10.
Despite modest fall in rate in recent years, Japan has struggled to address cultural resistance to discussing mental health issues
High-profile suicides are a common occurrence in Japan, where ending one's own life is still seen by some as the ultimate expression of atonement, rooted in the samurai belief in the value of ritual suicide.
Recent political and corporate history is replete with cases in which death appeared the most honourable course of action. Only last month, Dr Yoshiki Sasai, deputy director of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, hanged himself after becoming embroiled in an ongoing scandal over stem cell research.
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But for every suicide involving a public figure there are many more among ordinary Japanese people, and for reasons that resonate in other countries.
The bursting of Japan's economic bubble prompted an end to lifetime employment, and was blamed for the spike in suicides in the late 1990s from around 25,000 a year to around 32,000.
Depression, serious illness – particularly among the elderly – and debt have also been cited as common causes of suicide.
Japan's annual suicide rate has hovered around the 30,000 mark since the late 1990s, making it one of the highest rates in the world. In 2007, the figure rose to 33,093 – the second highest number ever – prompting the government to take action.
Vowing to cut the suicide rate by at least 20% over 10 years, health officials have unveiled a $220m (£134m) package of measures that include improving threadbare counselling services and monitoring websites that encourage like-minded people to enter into suicide pacts.
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Japan will probably fall short of that target, but recent data is cause for optimism. Following a gradual decrease beginning in 2009, the number of suicides in 2012 fell below 30,000 – to 27,776 – for the first time since 1997. Last year, the rate fell again, to 27,283, according to data from the National Police Agency.
Despite the modest fall over the past four years, Japan, like its neighbour South Korea, has struggled to address cultural resistance to discussing mental health issues and, in Japan's case, the absence of any deep-seated social or religious opposition to taking one's own life.
Broad acceptance of suicide as the answer to seemingly insoluble problems, combined with the pressures of life in a largely patriarchal society, has had a disproportionate effect on men. They account for about 70% of suicides – the leading cause of death among Japanese men aged 20-44.
More than 70 Japanese people a day kill themselves, and the rate per 100,000 people is double that of the US, whose population is twice the size of Japan's.
The high suicide rate is also a symptom of Japan's skewed demographics, with its quickly growing elderly population more susceptible to isolation, depression and serious illness.
In response, local authorities and private organisations have moved to fill the gap in preventative measures, including the introduction of inochi no monban(gatekeepers for life) – people from all walks of life who are trained to spot suicidal tendencies among friends, relatives and colleagues.