Suicides in Japan drop to 22-year low in 2016

The number of suicides in Japan in 2016 plunged from the previous year to 21,764, the lowest level in 22 years, the National Police Agency said Friday in a preliminary report.

A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official attributed the decline to stronger localized efforts following the enforcement in April of the revised law on suicide countermeasures, which obliges local governments to compile prevention plans.

The pace of decline was the fastest since the agency started the survey in 1978. The number of suicides fell for the seventh consecutive year.

By sex, suicides among men fell 1,664 to 15,017 and those among women decreased 597 to 6,747.

According to the ministry's assessment of suicide data between January and November last year, suicides fell across generations with those in their 70s sliding the most, followed by those in their 40s and 50s.

Suicides attributable to health or financial problems decreased particularly, said the ministry, which is set to release an analysis for the whole year in March.

The annual number of suicides stayed above 20,000 between 1978 and 1997 before topping the 30,000 line for 14 years in a row from 1998. It slipped to a record low of 20,434 in 1981 and hit its peak at 34,427 in 2003.