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Eriko Kobayashi is 43 years old and has attempted suicide four times. He was only 22 when he made his first attempt. At the time, Eriko had a full-time job at a publishing house, but her salary was not enough to cover rent and supermarket bills in Tokyo. “I was really poor,” Kobayashi, who spent three days unconscious in hospital after the incident, told CNN.
Now, 21 years later, Kobayashi has written books about his fight for mental health and has a permanent job at a non-governmental organization. But the coronavirus restores the stress you’ve experienced before.
“They cut my salary and I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “I constantly feel a sense of crisis that I can fall back into poverty.”
Experts have warned that the pandemic could cause a crisis in people’s mental health. Mass unemployment, social isolation and anxiety are leaving their mark on people around the world.
And in Japan, government statistics show that suicides in October claimed more lives than COVID-19 throughout the year. The monthly number of suicides in Japan rose to 2,153 in October, and the total number of coronavirus victims since the start of the pandemic was 2,087, according to the Ministry of Health.
Japan is one of the few major economies that has released timely suicide figures; the most recent information on the United States, for example, is from 2018.
Data from the Asian country can give other countries a complete picture of the impact of virus control measures on mental health and which groups are most vulnerable.
“We didn’t even have a lockdown and the impact of COVID here is minimal compared to other countries. But we are still seeing this huge increase in suicides,” said Michiko Ueda, associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo and an expert on suicides. “This suggests that other countries may see a similar or even greater increase in suicides in the future.”
COVID affects women more
Japan has long struggled with one of the highest suicide rates in the world according to the WHO. In 2016, the suicide death rate in Japan was 18.5 per 100,000 people. It is only surpassed by South Korea in the Western Pacific region and almost double the world average of 10.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.
It is difficult to determine the specific causes of the high suicide rate in Japan. Long working hours, school pressures, social exclusion, and the cultural stigma surrounding mental health problems have been cited as contributing factors.
But in the last 10 years to 2019, the number of suicides in Japan is declining, falling to about 20,000 cases last year, according to the Health Ministry, the lowest level since the country’s health authorities began keeping statistics in 1978.
However, the pandemic reversed this positive trend and suicide began to rise again, with women being the most affected.
Although they account for a smaller proportion of total suicides than men, the number of women taking their own lives is increasing. In October, female suicides in Japan increased by almost 83% compared to the same month last year. By comparison, suicides among men increased by nearly 22% during the same period.
There are several potential reasons for this. – Women represent a higher percentage of part-time workers in the hotel, food and retail industries, where layoffs were higher. Kobayashi says that many of his friends have been fired. “Japan ignores women“It’s a society in which the weakest people are fired first when something bad happens.”
In a global survey of more than 10,000 people conducted by the international nonprofit aid organization CARE, 27% of women reported greater mental health problems during the pandemic, compared with 10% of men.
Along with concerns about their income, the responsibility for children rests on the shoulders of women.. Mothers who keep their jobs are also required to take responsibility for their children after they return from school, along with their regular work responsibilities. The growing concern for the health and well-being of children has also placed an additional burden on mothers during the pandemic.
Akari, 35, who does not want to use her real name, said she sought professional help this year when her premature son was hospitalized for six weeks. “I was worried 24 hours a day,” she said. “I hadn’t had any mental illness before, but I was very, very worried the whole time.”
Y this feeling of anxiety intensifies when the pandemic occurs with greater force Akari was concerned that her son might contract COVID-19.
“I felt like there was no hope, I always considered the worst case,” he said.
“A place for you”
In March, 21-year-old student Koki Ozora launched a 24-hour mental health hotline called Anata no Ibasho (Place for you). It says the hotline, a nonprofit organization funded by private donations, receives an average of more than 200 calls a day and that the majority of the callers are women.
“They have lost their jobs and they have to raise their children, but they don’t have the money,” Ozora said. “So they are trying to commit suicide.”
Most calls are at night, starting at 10:00 pm. until 4 in the morning. 600 volunteers living in different time zones around the world are awake to talk to them. But now their number is not enough to cope with the volume of messages, says Ozora. To deal with this problem, volunteers have developed a system that informs them of the most urgent cases. Most young people do not seek help through a call, but through a text message that includes some basic keywords.
In April, the most common reports were from mothers having difficulty raising their children., and some admitted that they even considered killing their own children. Now the messages are coming more frequently from women who have lost their jobs and are experiencing financial difficulties. Domestic violence is also common.
Pressure on children
Japan is the only G-7 country where suicide is the leading cause of death among 15- to 39-year-olds. And suicides among young people under 20 were on the rise even before the pandemic., show data from the Ministry of Health.
Closed schools keep children out of social situations and at home they have to deal with stressful home life and the pressure of staying behind on homework, Ozora says. On his hotline, he also received messages from children under the age of 5.
Children also have less freedom to see their friends, which also contributes to stress, according to Naho Morisaki of the National Center for Child Health and Development. The center recently conducted an online survey of more than 8,700 parents and children and found that 75% of Japanese students show signs of stress caused by the pandemic.
Morisaki says she believes there is a great link between children’s anxiety and their parents. “Children who hurt themselves are stressed out, but they cannot talk to their family because they probably see that their mothers or fathers are also stressed and they cannot hear them.”
Mental health remains a taboo subject in Japan
In Japan, there is still a stigma against acknowledging that someone is experiencing mental health problems or loneliness. Ozora says that people often start talking to volunteers with the phrase: “I know it’s bad to ask for help, but can I speak?“
Ueda says the “shame” of talking about depression often stops people. “It is not something that is discussed in public, with friends or with someone else,” he says.
Mite, the mother of the premature baby, agrees. Before returning to Japan, she lived in the United States, where she thought it seemed easier to seek help. “When I lived in the United States, I knew people who had undergone therapy. It’s common there, but in Japan it is very difficult“, she shares.
Following the financial crisis of the 1990s, the suicide rate in Japan rose to a record high in 2003, when some 34,000 people took their own lives. Experts say that embarrassment and anxiety about the layoffs, especially among men at the time, contributed to depression and increased suicides. In the early 2000s, the Japanese government accelerated investments and suicide prevention efforts and provided support to survivors. In 2006, the Basic Law for the Prevention of Suicide was approved, which should provide support to those affected by the problem.
But both Ozora and Kobayashi say that’s not enough: Reducing the suicide rate requires a change in Japanese society.. “It’s a shame that others know about your weakness, so you hide it all, you keep it to yourself,” Kobayashi said. “But we need to create a culture that accepts that people have weaknesses.
Although he has to deal with lower wages and constant financial uncertainty, Kobayashi says he is now much better at dealing with his anxiety. She hopes that by speaking out publicly about her fears, more people will do the same. they’ll realize they’re not alone before it’s too late.
“I go out in public and say that he was mentally ill and depressed in the hope that others would be encouraged to talk about his problems,” Kobayashi said. “I am 43 years old now and my life is more exciting than ever. I feel good that I’m still alive. “
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