Is an increase in Japan’s suicides caused by COVID-19 alone?

Similar to other countries, the Japanese government quickly undertook preventative measures against increasing suicides during the pandemic, but could not suppress the increase. Suicide mortality among both sexes under 20 and females aged 20–39 significantly increased during the pandemic, but unexpe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian journal of psychiatry 2022-12, Vol.78, p.103320-103320, Article 103320
Main Author: Okada, Motohiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Female
Humans
Japan
Japan - epidemiology
Male
Pandemics
Prefecture
Short Communication
Suicide
Suicide mortality
Unemployment
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Summary:Similar to other countries, the Japanese government quickly undertook preventative measures against increasing suicides during the pandemic, but could not suppress the increase. Suicide mortality among both sexes under 20 and females aged 20–39 significantly increased during the pandemic, but unexpectedly had already slowed decreasing trends before the pandemic onset. Furthermore, before the pandemic, a higher complete unemployment rate contributed to increasing suicide mortality of both sexes, whereas during the pandemic, the positive relationship between females suicide mortalities and complete unemployment rates was not observed. •Suicide trends and fixed-effects of unemployment rate were determined.•Decreasing trends of high-risk subgroups were stalled before the pandemic.•Fixed-effects of unemployment rate were not observed during the pandemic.
ISSN:1876-2018
1876-2026
DOI:10.1016/j.ajp.2022.103320