JAPAN: Tackling Depression to Curb Suicide Rates

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 7 2006 (IPS) - For years Mariko, 61, has suffered from depression. Her crushing sense of loss, following the death of her only son, has forced her to shut herself in her apartment for weeks together at a time.

”There are days when I feel it is easier to die than stay alive and face a miserable future,” says Mariko, a divorcee.

Mariko, who asked that her last name not be revealed, relies on anti-depressive medication, but refuses to visit a psychiatrist saying it is too expensive.

”It is hard to talk to others about my illness because they have no time to help me. My relatives think I am making a fuss and trying to gain their sympathy,” the middle-aged woman who lives alone in a small wooden apartment in a Tokyo suburb told IPS.

According to medical experts, there are tens of thousands of people in Japan like Mariko who live on the fringes of a society that shows little sympathy. But as suicide rates rise in the country, the government is finally taking some responsibility.

A landmark step in this direction was a new regulation passed in June, the ‘Basic Law to deal with Suicides’, that links depression to suicide and calls for collective social action against the situation.

Japan now documents more than 32,000 suicides per year, the worst record in the industrialised world. Statistics by researchers also show that for every suicide there are ten failed attempts.

The legislation, to conform with the criteria released by the United Nations to prevent suicides, now identifies both the mental health aspect of suicide along with the role that can be played by the community and workplace.

Included are new guidelines such as expecting offices to employ psychiatrists and gather data on workplace depression, creating a government task force headed by the cabinet chief secretary and a target to reduce the number of suicides to less than 25,000 per year.

‘’The new law pledges national support for the treatment and prevention of depression and is long overdue in Japan,” says Hidemori Gen, head of the Shinjuku Help Centre, a non-profit organization providing counselling in the heart of downtown Tokyo.

Gen, a former Buddhist priest, says he started his grassroots organization to help the growing number of people who are in desperate need of support and help.

”More than 100 people visit my clinic seeking help for emotional problems, some of them suicidal. They are offered counselling for a nominal fee and if they cannot afford to pay we treat them free,” he told IPS.

Surveys conducted at the clinic illustrate that work-related stress and financial bankruptcy following lay offs or business losses are the immediate causes of their mental illnesses.

But, says Gen, the core problem lies in the lack of family and community support for the scores of lonely people in modern Japan that has ruthlessly rejected traditional customs with the breakdown in community and family ties.

”Against such a backdrop the crucial test facing the new law is how bureaucrats intend to use it,” he explains, urging the government to recognise that depression can be treated best at the grass-root community level.

Norihiro Kurki, official at the health, welfare and labour ministry, acknowledges that Japan now faces a long road to prevent suicides which are the result of many complex problems.

”The new law is to develop a serious campaign given the high number of suicides in Japan today. But, honestly, it is hard to put a finger on an exact cause for the alarming situation,” he said, indicating community support is the only answer.

Government statistics indicate that the highest number of suicides is among the elderly -10,000 over the age of 60, followed by men in their forties and fifties- around 8000 annually.

By location, northern Japan, records the largest numbers. In remote villages aging people, whose children have moved to the cities, are tempted to commit suicide to escape loneliness.

Yoshitaka Igarashii, a volunteer in nursing homes for seniors, explains that the government must also support programmes for depression to make sure to link the medical model and the community model to control suicides.

”It is important to tell vulnerable groups even if they are healthy that they can seek help when in distress which is reflected in the law and must be enacted upon as stipulated in the United Nations model,” he said.

Last month, saw the case of a 54-year-old man who tried to commit suicide but failed. He had received a suspended sentence for the murder of his 86-year-old mother who suffered from dementia.

The man had sought help from local government officials but was turned down on the grounds that he already benefited from unemployment doles. The judge ruled that the defendant had felt his claims were not being heard sympathetically at the welfare office..