The number of suicides in 1999 hit a record-high 33,048, up 0.6 percent from the previous high, set the year before, according to a National Police Agency report released Thursday.

One in five suicides last year was due to debt or job loss, up 11.6 percent from 1998, the report says.

The report says 75 percent of those who killed themselves were aged 40 or older. The survey differs from a Health and Welfare Ministry survey in that it tallies all confirmed suicides in Japan, regardless of nationality.