JAPAN: Japan is planning a raft of measures to cope with a stubbornly high suicide rate, including improving medical facilities for suicidal individuals and supporting private groups that try to stop people from killing themselves, according to political officials.
A bill prepared jointly by the ruling and opposition parties requires the central and local governments to take steps to prevent suicides in a country where demographic trends are already showing a population in decline.
The legislation calls for aid for those who have attempted suicide and relatives of those who killed themselves, and urges employers to take measures to keep their employees healthy.
"Suicides must not be seen as a problem for individuals," the legislation says, "they should rather be treated as a social problem."
Suicides in Japan started to rise in 1998, when the country was mired in an economic slump.
The number of those who take their lives has exceeded 30,000 every year since. Japan, with 127 million people, saw 32,325 suicides in 2004, or 25.3 per 100,000 people - compared to 12.5 per 100,000 in Ireland (in 2001-02), which is similar to the US.
Males accounted for more than 35.2 per 100,000 in Japan while in Ireland the male rate is 21.4 per 100,000.
Health problems were cited as the most common reason, followed by economic woes.
No religious proscription exists against suicide in Japan.