Suicides among Japanese students hit record high in 2020 japantoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from japantoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Groups manning hotlines dedicated to talking people out of committing suicide found their phones ringing off the hook in 2020.
So, it came as no surprise to them that a Jan. 22 report on suicides across Japan last year registered the first increase in 11 years.
The primary culprit for the surge, particularly noticeable among women, was emotional and financial stress caused by isolation as the nation fought to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lifelink, a nonprofit organization working to prevent suicides, operates social media accounts that allow anyone to post messages about their problems.
It reported about 3,000 consultations in March, but in September, after the second wave of the pandemic hit, the figure rose to 15,000. About 70 percent of those sending messages were women.