Suicide rate jumps 16% in Japan during fresh COVID-19 wave

TOKYO: The suicide rate has increased in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic's second wave, particularly among women and children, even though it fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, The Japan Times reported, citing a survey.

The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the 14% February-June decline, the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology revealed.

“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents, and females (especially housewives),” the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

The report said that the prolonged pandemic has badly affected industries where women are the major work force and has increased the burden on working mothers and led to a rise in domestic violence.