Japan suicide rates hit 2-year high in May (08.06.2011)

Tokyo (CNN) -- The number of suicides in Japan hit a two-year high in the month of May, according to data released Wednesday by the nation's authorities.
For the first time in two years, the monthly suicide number topped 3,000 in the month of May, the National Police Agency said.
The report says suicides in Japan totaled 3,281 in May 2011, up nearly 20% from the same month last year.
The spike reverses a steady decline in the number of suicides since the end of last year, when the government launched a national public awareness campaign.
Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, and continues to grapple with a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Japan's radiation twice as bad
National suicide figures increased the two months following the disaster, the figures show.
The most populous region of Tokyo saw the highest number of suicides in May at 325, the agency said.
In the area hit hardest by the nuclear crisis, Fukushima saw 19 more suicides in May 2011 compared with May last year, with a total of 68.
The tsunami-devastated prefecture of Miyagi showed no change in its suicide numbers and Iwate prefecture saw a decline of three.
Northern Japan, which was devastated by the tsunami, had the highest rate of suicide in the country in 2010, according to the police agency.
Iwate prefecture in 2010 had the second-highest suicide rate.
Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures last year had a higher suicide rate than Tokyo.
Japan's suicide rate remains one of the highest among developed nations, according to the World Health Organization.

Opinion:

It's sad to hear how much people are dying b their own hands. I mean, how sad, how miserable and empty do you have to feel to take off your life? Japan is one of the countries with most of suicide rates, I think they will have to make a bigger campaign to stop these sad tendencies the Japanese people has. In my religion way of view, I think they don't have God inside, so they feel like their likes has no porpoise, they feel an empty inside of them that can't be filled and they don't know why. The majority of Guatemalans (despite the catastrophe Japan is living) live lifes without luxuries, even the basic things like food, clean water, light, a house to live, we live in a State where the insecurity, the impunity, the injustice, the inequality and racism is a cotidiany thing; all the murders, all the lost of dear ones but a low suicide rate. The only big difference is the religion. Christian people, despite the suffering, the sadness, they have hope, faith and have something or better saying SOMEONE to stand. I would let you think about this reflection and later you tell me if I am right.