Tokyo, Oct. 14 (BNA): Local media, quoting the Ministry of Education in Japan, reported that the number of child suicides in Japan is the highest in more than four decades.
As the COVID-19 pandemic led to school closures and classroom disruptions last year, 415 children from primary to secondary school age were registered as suicides, according to the Education Ministry’s survey, Reuters reported.
The number is up by nearly 100 from last year, the highest number since record keeping began in 1974.
Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way to avoid shame, and suicide rates have long topped the G7, but the national effort has brought the numbers down nearly 40% over 15 years, including 10 consecutive years of declines from a year earlier. 2009.
Amid the pandemic, suicides increased in 2020 after a decade of decline, with a higher number of women taking their own lives amid the emotional and financial stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic, although fewer men committed suicide.
The Ministry of Education said that a record number of more than 19,627 pupils in schools were absent for 30 days or more, media reported.
NHK quoted an Education Ministry official as saying that the results showed that changes in the school and home environment due to the pandemic had a significant impact on children’s behaviour.
MI