Hopeless souls turn to suicide in Japan

22 October 2009 (00:00) | posted by mnn |

As suicide rate increases in Japan, Asian Access responds with hope of ChristPastors pray for president Joe Handley 

Japan (MNN) ― In Japan, suicide is on the rise. Nearly 34,000 people took their lives last year alone, according to USA Today. This number is the second-highest toll ever in Japan and ranks Japan at ninth for suicide rates worldwide.

This has been the case for the last decade as Japan's economy continues to weaken and spiral downward. Since 1998, there have been over 30,000 suicides each year, reported the Japan Times.

Takeshi Takazawa with Asian Access (A2) said two factors contribute to this.

"This basically shows the hopelessness. They think killing themselves is better than continuing life, so they basically give up," he said. Also, many feel isolated, without anyone to talk to or show support.

Asian Access in Japan is trying to turn this number around.

Takazawa said the church in Japan needs to reach out to society, rather than waiting for the hopeless to come knocking on the church doors.

"We're encouraging our Japanese pastors to become a true bridge to those people who desperately need hope and salvation of Christ," he said.

One way they did this was by sending several pastors to the U.S. through the pastor's vision tour. These pastors visited Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, as well as Vancouver, B.C. and according to A2's Web site, "had a very fruitful time."

Takazawa said Seattle area is one of the least-evangelized places in the U.S. Thus, the pastors observed the unique models and approaches evangelists used there and were taught how to use them in Japan.

The pastors realized two main issues they needed to address in Japan as a result of the conference.

First, Takazawa said, "[The] Church needs ears to listen to society. The answer is Jesus Christ, always, but what questions are they asking?"

Second, they became aware of the need to create multi-site churches. Rather than keeping the church in one location, the church would go to the searching and allow them to connect on a deeper level.

Pray for the church in Japan as they seek to reach out to lost and hopeless individuals. Pray that they will reach people before they feel the need to end their lives.

To learn more about the ministry of Asian Access and how you can get involved, click here.

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Comments

  1. Andrew Grimes

    Re: Hopeless souls turn to suicide in Japan

    3 November 2009 | 06:19
    Mental health professionals in Japan have long known that the reason for the unnecessarily high suicide rate in Japan is due to unemployment, bankruptcies, and the increasing levels of stress on businessmen and other salaried workers who have suffered enormous hardship in Japan since the bursting of the stock market bubble here that peaked around 1997. Until that year Japan had an annual suicide of rate figures between 22,000 and 24,000 each year. Following the bursting of the stock market and the long term economic downturn that has followed here since the suicide rate in 1998 increased by around 35% and since 1998 the number of people killing themselves each year in Japan has consistently remained well over 30,000 each and every year to the present day. The current worldwide recession is of course impacting Japan too, so unless very proactive and well funded local and nation wide suicide prevention programs and initiatives are immediately it is very difficult to foresee the governments previously stated intention to reduce the suicide rate to around 23,000 by the year 2016 being achievable. On the contrary the numbers, and the human suffering and the depression and misery that the people who become part of these numbers, have to endure may well stay at the current levels that have persistently been the case here for the last ten years. It could even get worse unless even more is done to prevent this terrible loss of life. The current numbers licensed psychiatrists (around 13,000), Japan Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists clinical psychologists (16,732 as of 2007), and Psychiatric Social Workers (39,108 as of 2009) must indeed be increased. In order for professional mental health counseling and psychotherapy services to be covered for depression and other mental illnesses by public health insurance it would seem advisable that positive action is taken to resume and complete the negotiations on how to achieve national licensing for clinical psychologists in Japan through the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and not just the Ministry of Education as is the current situation. These discussions were ongoing between all concerned mental health professional authorities that in the ongoing select committee and ministerial levels that were ongoing during the Koizumi administration. With the current economic recession adding even more hardship and stress in the lives its citizens, now would seem to be a prime opportunity for the responsible Japanese to take a pro-active approach to finally providing government approval for national licensing for clinical psychologists who provide mental health care counseling and psychotherapy services to the people of Japan. During these last ten years of these relentlessly high annual suicide rate numbers the English media seems in the main to have done little more than have someone goes through the files and do a story on the so-called suicide forest or internet suicide clubs and copycat suicides (whether cheap heating fuel like charcoal briquettes or even cheaper household cleaning chemicals) without focusing on the bigger picture and need for effective action and solutions. Economic hardship, bankruptcies and unemployment have been the main cause of suicide in Japan over the last 10 years, as the well detailed reports behind the suicide rate numbers that have been issued every year until now by the National Police Agency in Japan show only to clearly if any journalist is prepared to learn Japanese or get a bilingual researcher to do the research to get to the real heart of the tragic story of the long term and unnecessarily high suicide rate problem in Japan. Useful telephone number for Japanese residents of Japan who speak Japanese and are feeling depressed or suicidal: Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service)： Japan: 0120-738-556 Tokyo: 3264 4343 Andrew Grimes Tokyo Counseling Services http://tokyocounseling.com/english/ http://tokyocounseling.com/jp/ http://www.counselingjapan.com

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