The Japanese prime minister has appointed a “minister of loneliness” in his cabinet in response to a recent rise in suicides.
Like The Japan Times reported, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga created the role in early February, taking over from the UK, which created its own role in 2018.
Tetsushi Sakamoto will take over the role, the Times reported, while also addressing the declining birth rate and regional economies.
Figures from the National Police Agency showed that 20,919 people committed suicide in 2020, an increase of 750 people compared to the previous year and the first consecutive increase in suicides in 11 years, the Times reported. According to the media, the growth is most visible among women and young people.
Suga told the country’s budget committee earlier this month that people from all walks of life are vulnerable, the Times reported.
The newspaper noted that Japan is familiar with loneliness, as kodokushi or “lonely deaths” are common. These involve people dying in their homes and remaining undiscovered for long periods of time.
Japan ranked best for people aged 60 and over who felt they had no one to turn to in times of need, with 16% of people saying so, compared to 13% in the US.
The pandemic has exacerbated feelings of global isolation. In the United States, the school district in Clark County, Nevada has partially reopened schools in response to an increase in student suicides during the pandemic, with the number of student suicides doubling from the previous year.