Friday, May 18, 2007

Is Japan's Suicide Rate So Abnormally High?
We see lots of news stories like this one from the AP that say Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates among industrialized countries. However, a quick search found this World Health Organization page on world suicide rates that show Eastern European nations like Lithuania and Hungary have notably higher rates. (We're talking about guys here -- women have much lower rates everywhere.)

Even if the WHO data is somewhat old and even if Hungary isn't quite the industrialized nation Japan is, the data does raise the question whether Japan deserves its unwanted reputation. Suicide rates in countries like Finland and even Belgium are not all that different from Japan's. Add into the equation certain cultural factors -- the US's relatively low rate may merely average out lower rates among Catholics against higher rates among non-Catholics -- and Japan's suicide level may not be all that different from other industrialized nations.

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