The Diet in 2006 enacted a basic law to help prevent suicides. And in 2007 the Cabinet adopted the goal of reducing the number of suicides per 100,000 people by 20 percent by 2016 from the level of 2005.
More than 30,000 people annually have taken their lives for the last 10 consecutive years. This is about 90 suicides a day. Japan's suicide rate is less than Russia's but the highest among developed countries. It is more than twice that of the United States and more than three times that of Britain.
The number of suicides in 1997 was slightly less than 25,000. But 1998 became a turning point, when the number jumped to 32,863. The sharp rise was attributed to an increase in the number of men in their 40s and 50s living in urban areas who, affected by bankruptcies and severe corporate restructuring efforts, committed suicide.