A pair of high-profile tragedies in Japan over the weekend have highlighted growing concerns about the country’s mental health crisis, which has been linked to the pandemic.
, even as many other countries moved toward community-based mental health care and the use of new therapies rather than hospitalization. This has contributed to a societal taboo against seeking help and further isolation of those who need care, she said.“Without enough community support, there is still fundamentally a strong societal prejudice that makes it difficult to accept people with mental health struggles,” Kageyama said.
“For those who are feeling distressed seeing the media reports about the celebrity, please quickly turn away from online and TV reports. We are available as always 24 hours. Please do not hesitate and reach out,” the organization tweeted. Suicide rates among women and young people have increased notably in Japan and neighboring South Korea since 2020, suggesting the pandemic has taken a greater toll on those populations.Even before the pandemic, the leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 39 was suicide, making Japan unique among the wealthy Group of Seven countries, according to a Health Ministry white paper published last month. In 2020, 21,081 people died by suicide, a 4.5 percent increase since 2019, the paper found.
Japan and South Korea see surge of suicides among young women, raising new questions about pandemic stress