A study of the reasons for suicide from 1978-1995 in Japan revealed strong trends over time & strong gender differences. Suicides due to relationship problems became less common over the period; for men job stress became a more common precipitant, while for women psychiatric disorder became a more common precipitant. Years of high unemployment witnessed higher proportions of suicides due to economic hardship, lending support to the reliability & validity of these data. (2 refs.)