Significant Correlation of Yearly Suicide Rates With the Rate of Unemployment Among men Results in a Rapid Increase of Suicide in Mie Prefecture, Japan

In this letter to the editor, the authors report on their study of all suicide cases between 1989-2002 in Mie Prefecture, Japan. During the test period, 3276 male & 1772 female suicides were reported. Among the causative factors, economic difficulties (including unemployment) were the second most prevalent in men & the least prevalent in women. The yearly suicide rates for men correlated significantly with the unemployment rate in Japan; some correlation was also seen for women. (6 refs.)