The number of women who died by suicide in Japan rose for the second straight year in 2021, totaling 7,068, possibly due to the lingering impact of the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Tuesday.
But with fewer men killing themselves, the overall number of suicides in the country inched down by 74 to 21,007. The figure, nevertheless, remained 838 higher than the number in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak.
"The effect of the coronavirus pandemic appears to manifest in various ways," said a health ministry official working on measures to prevent suicides.