According to the article, for Japan, the number of suicides for men in October is 1,302, up 229 from last year. The number of suicides for women in October is 851, up 385 from last year.<p>Seems strange to single out one gender here. I'm not even sure that you can conclude that this is impacting women harder than it is men, as the article does, given that the number is so much higher for men in the first place.
In the United States the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255 or over chat at <a href="https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/" rel="nofollow">https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/</a><p>In Japan, the Health Ministry website has contacts for people to find support by phone or online. <a href="https://www.mhlw.go.jp/mamorouyokokoro/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mhlw.go.jp/mamorouyokokoro/</a><p>In South Korea, the Korea Suicide Prevention Center operates a 24-hour hotline at 1393. <a href="http://www.suicideprevention.or.kr/main/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.suicideprevention.or.kr/main/index.html</a>
> “Many of those who reach us say they have no place to go when they’re told to stay home,” said Jun Tachibana of the Bond Project. “Many are having problems with their family, friends or boyfriends. I worry they may be feeling more lonely.”<p>Unfortunately, this article's diagnosing of the problem as <i>loneliness</i> misses the mark entirely. I don't think loneliness alone should account for this 80% increase in female suicides – there is an insidious assumption here, that women are somehow less able to "deal" with being alone, to such a severe extent that they are driven to suicide. Additionally, in the same sentence, Jun Tachibana mentioned that the women are "having problems with their family, friends, or boyfriends" – not that they don't have these interactions, but that these interactions are <i>the source</i> of problems.<p>What the article was woefully remiss in addressing at all is the increased rates of domestic abuse and child abuse that has happened in Japan in the last few years [1]. Domestic abuse in Japan has increased year to year for <i>16 consecutive years.</i> (I am not sure why, but I do know it's a taboo topic in Japan. See Kore-ada's film <i>Shoplifters</i> about the government response to this situation, and its myopic insistence that the nuclear family solves all). Additionally (in the US, for instance), we have seen domestic abuse rates soar during the pandemic [2]. As per the source: "Disturbingly, the data suggested that the pandemic has produced many new offenders: reports coming from city blocks with no previous record of domestic violence were the main drivers of the increase."<p>These two factors together with Japan's complicated history with suicide and shame actually provide a much clearer (and sad) picture of the possible cause of an increase in suicide for women.<p>[1] – <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/03/e788d95b8fc7-domestic-violence-cases-in-japan-reach-new-all-time-high-in-2019.html" rel="nofollow">https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/03/e788d95b8fc7-dome...</a>
[2] – <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-08-domestic-violence-pandemic.html" rel="nofollow">https://phys.org/news/2020-08-domestic-violence-pandemic.htm...</a>
“Japan never imposed the sweeping lockdowns seen in many other parts of the world, largely relying on mask-wearing, hand-washing and avoidance of indoor crowding to keep the virus relatively under control.“<p>It’s really hard to describe how hard the Japanese Government has bungled the coronavirus response. It’s actually quite perplexing.<p>They really know how to keep the population guessing, it’s hard to get tested, the numbers all are dodgy and conveniently changing. There’s a three day lag in the data. It’s seriously mind blowing my bad.<p>Peope don’t feel comfortable because no one knows what’s really going on in Tokyo and to add to all the confusion, there’s a domestic travel campaign ongoing nation wide which encourages travel...insane.