[ad_1]
The first time, I had a full-time editorial job that didn’t pay enough to cover rent and grocery bills in Tokyo. “I was very poor,” said Kobayashi, who spent three days unconscious in the hospital after the accident. Now Kobayashi has written several books about his mental health problems and has a steady job at an NGO. But the coronavirus is recovering the stress it felt then. “My salary has been cut and I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “I constantly feel a sense of anguish because I could fall back into poverty.”
Coronavirus in the world, more than 400 thousand deaths in Europe. Gb, Johnson: “Disastrous consequences” without new restrictions
Experts have warned that the pandemic could lead to a mental health crisis. Mass unemployment, social isolation and anxiety are putting pressure on people around the world.
Statistics reported by the report show that there were 2,153 suicides in October, while the number of deaths from Covid since the start of the pandemic slightly exceeds 2,000 (2,087 according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University).
“A problem that could also affect other countries”
“We haven’t even had a lockdown, and the impact of Covid is minimal compared to other countries, but we still see this huge increase in the number of suicides,” Michiko Ueda, associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, told CNN. and associated. suicide expert. “This suggests that other countries may also see a similar or even greater increase in the number of suicides in the near future.”
In a country where there was historically a tradition of ritual suicide like Japan, the risk that the economic and psychological consequences of Covid will lead to an extreme choice is particularly high. Japan notes Cnn, is one of the few countries that promptly discloses data on suicides, and these could be used to analyze the impact of the pandemic and measures to combat it on the mental health of the population, helping to identify the most vulnerable categories.
The causes of suicides in Japan
Japan has long struggled with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, according to the World Health Organization. In 2016, it had a suicide death rate of 18.5 per 100,000 people, second only to South Korea in the Western Pacific region and almost three times the global annual average (rate of 10.6 per 100,000 people) . Although the reasons for the high suicide rate in Japan are complex, long working hours, school pressure, social isolation and a cultural stigma around mental health problems have been cited as contributing factors. But over the 10 years leading up to 2019, the number of suicides dropped in Japan, falling to about 20,000 last year, according to the Health Ministry, the lowest number since the country’s health authorities began keeping records. in 1978.
Women are the most affected
The pandemic appears to have reversed this trend and the rise in suicides has disproportionately affected women. Although they represent a smaller percentage of total suicides than men, the number of women who commit suicide is increasing. In October, female suicides in Japan increased by almost 83% compared to the same month last year. By comparison, male suicides increased by nearly 22% over the same time period. There are many potential reasons for this. Women represent a higher percentage of part-time workers in the hotel, restaurant and retail sectors, where layoffs have been deep. Kobayashi said that many of his friends were fired. “Japan has ignored women,” he said. “This is a society where the weakest people are cut off first when something bad happens.” According to a global study carried out on more than 10,000 people by the international non-profit humanitarian organization Watch out, 27% of women reported an increase in mental health problems during the pandemic, compared to 10% of men.
