Suicide should be recognized as a social rather than individual problem, and the government and society need to take proactive measures to prevent it, panelists at a suicide symposium in Tokyo recently said.
Suicides in 2007 surpassed 30,000 for the 10th straight year, but the government hasn't bothered to analyze who was doing it and why.
"Although the basic law on suicide prevention has been enforced since 2006, the government has not clarified the actual situations surrounding the suicides. That's why its suicide prevention plan has been ineffective," Yasuyuki Shimizu, head of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Lifelink Suicide Prevention Action Network, said at the symposium Sunday.