Suicides in Japan rise 16% in second wave COVID-19 after falling in first wave: study

TOKYO (Reuters) – Suicide rates in Japan have risen in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among women and children, although they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous offers to people, a poll found.

The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a sharp reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to a study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents and women (especially housewives),” the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior on Friday.

The study found that the early decline in suicides was affected by factors such as government subsidies, reduced work hours and school closures.

But the decline has reversed – the suicide rate has risen 37 percent for women, about five times as much as men – as the prolonged pandemic hurts industries where women predominate, increasing the burden on working mothers, while domestic violence has risen. , is shown in the report.

The study, based on data from the Ministry of Health from November 2016 to October 2020, found that the suicide rate of children increased by 49% in the second wave, corresponding to the period after school closure nationwide.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued a state of emergency COVID-19 to Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures this month in a bid to halt the renaissance. He extended it to seven more prefectures this week, including Osaka and Kyoto.

Taro Kono, the minister of administrative and regulatory reforms, told Reuters on Thursday that, although the government would consider extending the state of emergency, “it cannot kill the economy”.

“People are worried about COVID-19. But a lot of people committed suicide because they lost their jobs, they lost their income and they couldn’t see their hope, “he said. “We need to find a balance between managing COVID-19 and managing the economy.”