Some recent letters, and to some extent the May 8 editorial, "Help to live instead of die," reflect how suicide in Japan continues to be misrepresented in the press as extraordinary.
In Japan, attitudes toward suicide past and present, as revealed through literature, art and law, have been as ambivalent as in other civilizations. Some suicides are beautified, but most are regarded as tragic acts to be discouraged and prevented.
Images of Japan as a "country of suicide" are rooted in exceptionalism and deterministic "national character" stereotypes. Self-destructive behaviors need to be understood, not as anomalies of "the Japanese mind" but as manifestations of complex personal, family and social pathologies.
Because of population increase and aging, the present plateau of 30,000 suicides a year represents rates that are actually lower than the 20,000 plateau half a century ago. As the population continues to age, a continuation of 30,000 suicides a year over the next two decades will mean that the suicide rate is still falling.
Male crude rates in 1955 and 2005 were 31.5 and 36.1 suicides per 100,000 population. The rates adjusted for aging are respectively 38.5 and 31.6. Female crude rates in 1955 and 2005 were 19.0 and 12.9, while the age-adjusted rates are 22.4 and 10.7.
It would be wonderful if most, if not all, suicides could be prevented. But suicide is like pneumonia. It is there, in the human condition. And present epidemiological rates are well within the range of "normal" and "stable" postwar pathology. The false image of Japan as a "country of suicide" is a far greater threat to the mental health of the nation than the over-hyped annual body count.
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