
Child Suicides at Highest Rate Ever in Japan - sharjeelsayed
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00572/child-suicides-at-highest-rate-ever-in-japan.html
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mikekchar
Kind of annoying that this text is in a graphic, but I'll type it out: "From
1998-2005 the survey only targeted public schools. Then from 2006 onwards, it
included private schools, and from 2013 onwards, also high school
correspondence courses".

If you look at the graph, between 1998 and 2005 there was a decrease in
suicide rates. It jumps up in 2006 (right when private schools are added). It
should be noted that private schools often include the most troubled teens at
high school. If you do not pass your entrance exams, you must go to a private
high school. If you are expelled from public school you must also go to a
private school. The rate jumps again in 2013 when correspondence high schools
are added. It should be noted that correspondence schools have the most
troubled teens in them. The are for people who either originally did not
attend high school (dropped out after mandatory junior high school), or who
were expelled both from public school _and_ private schools. These are people
for whom their life is essentially wrecked from the age of 15 and who are
trying very hard to get it back to some kind of order. It is also important to
understand that correspondence high school includes students who are much
older than typical high school students.

It _is_ worrying that the junior high school rate has climbed over the last
few years (though it's still inline with data from the late 80's and early
nineties). However, the high school data appears to me to be a combination of
not comparing apples to apples along with a possible statistical outlier in
2018. Given the poor treatment of this data, I would not be surprised if there
is another reason for the spike in 2018.

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myrryr
Same as New Zealand. To be honest it isn't super surprising.

The youth of today are going to inherit a far more screwed up world, and
people are surprised they "opt out" of that.

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bulldog13
Or maybe this constant harping on how bad of a place it is, when they have had
the greatest standard of living ever since humankind started, is tantamount to
malevolent brainwashing.

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DarthGhandi
Can't speak for other countries but numerous reports have come out over the
years showing younger Australians are definitely on track to have a lower
standard of living than the previous generation, for the first time in
history.

Perhaps instead of highly loaded phrases such as brainwashing would you take a
moment to review the evidence of this occurring?

It's an unprecedented time in history, real assets are worth more than ever,
labor worth very little. Consider which generations have which.

[https://grattan.edu.au/report/generation-
gap/](https://grattan.edu.au/report/generation-gap/)

~~~
jesterson
It's not just Australia, this pretty much applies to any other first-world
country.

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ganzuul
I very much suspect the dangerous idea of the "bliss point" is to blame, as is
marketing unhealthy food. No way is a mind going to develop right when it is
constantly bombarded with false hunger signals.

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todaysAI
In my opinion, somewhat due to the breakdown of the nuclear family.

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claudiawerner
Is there anything to support such an opinion? From what I gather, Japan is a
country with a strong "nuclear family" tradition, at least as compared to the
West today - even then, the "nuclear family" is the ideal in the West still.
There are two ways in which a family usually differs from a "nuclear family"
\- either single parenthood, or relatives being more in the picture, living
with the child(ren).

People still view single parenthood as a certified bad thing. Perhaps you
could say that Japanese families are less nuclear because there are more
relatives in the picture (I don't know if that's true) but unless that had an
uptick at the same time as child suicides, there seems no basis for your
suspicion, or even any reason - why would having more relatives in the picture
_increase_ suicide?

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todaysAI
This article says 1.5% of Japanese males are hermits [1] which shows the
desolation that faces the Japanese young. This article [2] outlines the
declining marriage rates.

[1] [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190129-the-plight-of-
japan...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190129-the-plight-of-japans-
modern-
hermits?fbclid=IwAR02m-eJdEEZM5hqA0fkqj40KEzW_p5o6LYHTTpIrO9otkoXHf86TdrJXaM)

[2]
[https://www.meiji.ac.jp/cip/english/research/opinion/Akihiko...](https://www.meiji.ac.jp/cip/english/research/opinion/Akihiko_Kato.html)

~~~
claudiawerner
That's not the decline of the nuclear family - it's the lack of a family _at
all_ , and it's hard to see that this would have effects on _child_ suicide,
when children aren't male hermits. It's not as if hermits become that way
because women turn them down. The children haven't reached the age at which
they'd worry about it being too late to have a family. Even then, 1.5% isn't a
big enough number for people to worry that it's actually their fate. The rate
of divorce is higher than 1.5%, as are a huge number of other risks. Becoming
a hikkikomori isn't something I suspect most people, never mind children, are
realistically worrying about. Even then, hikkis aren't suicidal, they find
some contentment in being hermits.

