For the last two decades, Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Luckily, it has reduced over the past two years. It is the notice on this issue that has compelled the country to take preventive measures, as said by their government. For most of the 2000s, the rate was about 25,000 a year.

In 2016, it reduced to 21,897 which makes the future more hopeful. According to the Ministry of Health in Japan, more women than men consider suicide in Japan, nearly one in four consider killing themselves.

The numbers have dropped a little since now people are contemplating the thought of murder rather than going through with it, according to a survey in a March Newsweek article.

The reasons for a high suicide rate in Japan are similar to all other places – financial trouble, heartbreak, excess stress. Yet, it has one of the highest rates of suicide in the whole world.

The people of Japan live in a world with a ‘shame’ culture which makes them believe that a mental illness is something to be scorned at, that it makes a person weak or a failure in life.

Owing to this social stigma, people do not discuss that which bothers them and end up with a crushed core of optimism, ultimately leading to their feeling like a burden to the world and committing suicide. It is the depression that remains not talked about, taking a toll on their lives and increasing the unhealthy atmosphere which is so immensely neglected.  

Mental illness is nothing out of the ordinary in the global community. These issues are faced everywhere and by neglect in problems that arise from childhood or as an adolescent itself.

A proper access to mental healthcare services, a reduction in the current long work hours, more services for minority groups, discussions about workplace stress, to keep severe checks on bullying in schools, open talks about LGBTQ community – all of these are required to help the people in Japan to live a healthier and longer life.

Nobody deserves to die because they do not have someone to talk to.

Help-lines, visits to a guidance counsellor or a person to confide in are all it would take to provide more comfort to all. To spread awareness and remove the stigma that goes around mental illness would help a lot of people open up and receive the saving they deserve.