Via CNN:

The number of people in Japan who killed themselves last year because they couldn’t find a job jumped 20%, the National Police Agency reported Thursday.

The figures were released as part of the agency’s annual study of suicides.

In 2010, 424 people killed themselves because they failed to find a job, according to the NPA. In 2009, the number was 354.

Police said the greatest growth in the category came among students. In 2009, 23 students killed themselves. In 2010, the number grew to 53 — a 130% increase.

The stark figures stood in contrast to the overall decrease in the number of suicides in Japan, down 3.5% to 31,690. About 127 million people live in the island nation.

Police figures also showed an increase in the number of child caretakers who killed themselves. The number in 2010 grew to 157, up 44% from 2009.

Japan has one of the developed world’s highest suicide rates. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says the number of suicides in Japan has been over 30,000 per year for 13 years in a row.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has made tackling suicides one of his priorities, saying, in the past that he aimed to “reduce the factors that make people unhappy.”

On World Suicide Prevention Day last September, the government launched a website featuring a popular soccer star, urging the country become more aware of the warning signs of suicide.

But the suicide rate persists, in a society where a stigma surrounds mental health issues.

• Some 31,690 people committed suicide in Japan in 2010
• 424 people killed themselves because they failed to find a job in 2010
• More than twice as many students kill themselves because they can’t find jobs

Via The Telegraph:

Officials in Toyama, a city 186 miles northwest of Tokyo, have launched the nation’s first scheme in which hairdressers are used as mediators between suicidal customers and professional counsellors.

The move taps into the renowned universal skill of hairdressers to lend a sympathetic ear to customers who often feel comfortable confiding in them about their problems.

More than 650 hairdressers in the city are involved in the new project, which involves taking part in training lectures with clinical psychologists to help them identify those in need of specialist help.

The hairdressers are also being given guidebooks to hand out to customers who they believe may be suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts and are able to put them in touch with professional psychological counselors.

Visitors offer prayers on the first business day of the year at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo

Japan is home to one of the highest suicide rates among industrialised nations, with more than 30,000 people killing themselves every year.

Last year 102 people committed suicide in Toyama, reflecting a rate of 24.2 per 100,000 — more than double the suicide rate in Britain, according to World Health Organization figures.

“Since the fall of the Lehman Brothers in 2008, suicide has become an even more serious problem,” added the Toyama government spokesman.

“The decline of the economy all across Japan has sparked an increase in activities to prevent suicide, along with Toyama’s efforts.”

Hairdressers across the city appeared to welcome the initiative, with a growing number of premises displaying government-provided stickers in their window to show they are taking part in the project.

Tetsuya Ishida was a Japanese painter who painted scenes of ordinary Japanese life, but he often inserted himself into the paintings as one who was trapped in machinery or as a cog-in-the-wheel of society. He was killed in 2005 by being hit by a train (possibly suicide).  

His work is really stunning and communicates the loneliness, isolation and despair that a lot of Japanese men feel in the workforce. His gallery is definitely worth checking out.