JackAmanoさんの おぼえた日記 - 2023年12月28日(木)

Japan's child suicide crisis
Last year saw a record number of children in Japan's elementary,
junior high and high schools take their own lives.
While these suicides cannot be definitively linked to the coronavirus
pandemic, there's growing concern that the disruption to normal life
has left many children struggling to cope.
Japan's suicide rate has been declining in recent years but the number
of juvenile suicides has been heading in the opposite direction.
The figure has increased every year since 2016, and spiked dramatically
in 2020 with 499 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour
and Welfare.
That was a leap of more than 25 percent from the previous year, and
though the Ministry says the main reasons have remained more or less
the same — poor academic performance, career uncertainty and family
problems — some experts believe the pandemic has played a significant
role.