Statistics show overall situation is improving, but some at-risk individuals need more help than ever.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has released the preliminary results of its annual study of suicides in Japan, with a mix of heartening and heartbreaking statistics.
Let’s start with the good news. During 2025, the number of suicides in Japan dropped to 19,097. Not only do the 1,223 fewer suicides represent a six-percent decrease from the previous year, this is the first time for Japan’s annual suicide total to be less than 20,000 since official statistics began being recorded in 1978. The 13,117 male suicides in 2025 were approximately 5 percent fewer than in 2024, and female suicides decreased 8.3 percent, to 5,980.
By age group, people in their 50s accounted for the largest number of suicides (3,732), followed by those in their 40s (2,951). Men in their 50s (2,696) were the largest age/gender demographic, but the total number of suicides decreased for all adult age groups in 2025. When examining factors that had contributed to people taking their own lives, health issues were found to be a much less common issue in 2025, determined to be a cause in 736 fewer cases, 6.1 percent fewer than in 2024.
However, sifting through the data discussed so far, two things quickly stand out. Let’s start with the question of whether a smaller number of suicides taking place in 2025 really means suicide is becoming less common in Japan. Japan’s population, famously, is shrinking, so, morbid as it may be to explicitly consider, are the fewer suicides a product of Japan simply having fewer people who could end their own lives?
Thankfully, this isn’t what’s happening. In 2025, Japan had 15.4 suicides per 100,000 residents, down from 16.4 in 2024 and 17.6 in 2023. 15.4 suicides per 100,000 people is the lowest rate ever recorded, and a reduction of almost 25 percent from the rate of 20.0 in 2014. The by-gender number of suicides for men and women also fell in 2025, each for the third year in a row, and looking at the year-by-year chart, we can see fairly steady declines over the past decade, with current levels having fallen to below what they were in the late 1970s/early 1980s, when Japan’s population was even smaller than it is now.
▼ Chart showing annual suicides (black: total, blue: men, red: women) by year from 1978 (昭和53) to 2025 (令和7)
However, there’s one more unsettling wrinkle to the statistics, which is that part about how the number of suicides fell in 2025 for every adult age group. The number of suicides among elementary, middle, and high school students increased in 2025, to 532. Though this is only three more than in 2024, it’s the largest number of suicides ever recorded for that age group, and the second year in a row for a new all-time high. Last year, the Diet, Japan’s parliament, approved a revision to the Basic Law on Suicide Prevention that calls on the Children and Families Agency, schools, medical institutions, and local municipalities to more actively address and prevent child suicides, and with the bill going into effect this April, hopefully suicide rates in Japan will fall for all age groups, including children, in 2026.
If you or someone you know is in Japan and having suicidal thoughts, there are people here to help. Click here for more info.
Source: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Jiji via Hachima Kiko, Jiji (2)
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
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