By RYUICHI HISANAGA/ Staff Writer
March 15, 2022 at 18:05 JST
A government building housing the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The number of suicides in 2021 declined for the first time in two years, according to newly released government figures.
But the data also reveals that more women took their own lives in the second year of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The official figures released on March 15 by the health ministry show the overall number dropped slightly by 74 from a year earlier to 21,007.
Men accounted for 13,939, down 116 from the previous year. It marked the 12th straight year of decline for suicides among men.
But the figure for women rose by 42 from 2020 to 7,068, the second year in a row of an increase.
The suicide rate per 100,000 people stood at 16.8 nationwide, up by 0.1 point from the previous year. The rate for men remained unchanged at 22.9, while for women it rose by 0.2 point to 11.
By prefecture, Aomori and Yamanashi tied for the highest suicide rate at 23.7, followed by Niigata at 21.3.
The most common reason was “health problems,” cited in 9,860 suicide cases, down 335 from 2020. It was followed by “financial issues and other problems in life” in 3,376 cases, up 160 from a year earlier.
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