Record-high 512 school student suicides reported in 2022

Sad statistic. But the words 'school student(s)' is redundant. They were students, period.

It must be devastating to be the parent of one of these students - I cannot imagine the heartbreak of losing your child this way - to say nothing of the turmoil the students themselves experienced.

A shocking number indeed, but the fact that elementary school children are included in the total is even more horrifying. May these poor children rest in peace. They didn't even get a chance at life...

These are the kind of articles that just makes you sad a parent of a toddler full of life.

3 things I will make a point of doing when my son gets into school.

-Stay engaged with him and his new school life, study together sharing the same space in the house

-Enroll him in martial arts, try everything until he finds something he enjoys (might work against self-hating bullies?)

-The most important: tell him he leads his own life, there is no juku or "university entrance exam" as important as his own happiness, you choose if you want to be a lawyer, a choreographer, etc. this is your life.

I remember some 50 years ago a poster showing a boy and girl in school uniform pictured from behind. The caption read ' when did you last talk with your children '.

Many parents in Japan (or Asia generally) regard their children as potential rocket scientists of which most are not. The education system is mired in an Old World mindset which is intent on churning out robots. Teachers with excessive workloads are unable to provide individual attention. The ambition to succeed is the overriding strategy employed by parents who embrace their child's success as a badge of honour. The prestige of a child attending a "better" high school pushes out their parents chests.

Juku is a four letter word and so is joke. (among others)

Educate kids so that they enjoy learning and feel good as an individual, to be respected, not just a number.

Student suicides are an abomination, but who in the education system has the intestinal fortitude to revamp the system and prevent further deaths of young people who would have led productive lives if people had only been prepared listen to them.

When was the last time you said to your son/daughter- "are you ok?"

No one knows for sure the root cause of these suicides as without a doubt there are multiple causes and reasons. But it is safe to say the overreaction to the virus outbreak from wuhan certainly didn't help.

Suicides deaths have risen worldwide since the pandemic, due to plenty of reasons. Main one being the unnecessary measures like mask wearing, isolation from society etc.

Suicides deaths have risen worldwide since the pandemic, due to plenty of reasons. Main one being the unnecessary measures like mask wearing, isolation from society etc.

a direct and predictable outcome of the disastrous covid policies over the past 3 years.

And this in a country where there was at least a semblance of normalcy.

This generation of kids might never forgive us, and I don't think we deserve it.

There is just way too much pressure put on students here .!. From preschool through JHS, kids go to school for one test … The High school entrance exam .!. 9 years of education for 1 test …. That is so difficult that they only need to score at least 50%. And those tests started this week. Japan needs to completely overhaul the entire education system.!. Once kids get into high school , they’re back to square 1, 3 years to prepare for and score good on a college entrance exam ….. but in high school , the students are supposed to be learning something that is inline with their chosen career path .!. Fortunately, the dept of education didn’t try to blame Covid for the increase in suicides .!. It’s all on the immense amount of pressure put on kids .!.

Considering that the number of high school students is significantly lower than in was it 1980, it is a very troubling statistic.

It is long past the time to change school and university entrance requirements.

Allow any and all students who graduate from a public junior high school to automatically attend the nearest public high school to their home and only allow students to attend a public high school further away from the one nearest to their home if it offers substantially different study options.

Require universities to admit students based on their average marks in high school over three years.

Allow all mature students over the age of 23 who have graduated from a high school automatic admission to any post-secondary institution.

Spread public funding for post secondary education evenly among post-secondary institutions. Give people vouchers that they can spend at any certified post-secondary institution.

Establish high quality publicly funded community colleges.

And most of these would have been the brightest and most precocious who, looking at this place and their fellow Humans, decided trying to overcome the pain that this place really is wasn't worth it and left us, abandoned us, the people we NEED the most... The most disappointing thing about being a Human is Humanity itself.

Considering that the number of high school students is significantly lower than in was it 1980, it is a very troubling statistic.

Is it? By how much? You state this as if it's known fact, it's not one I've heard bandied about, much less to become common knowledge. So what are the numbers?

This is what LDP has led the nation to be a place where younger generation doesn't gives any hope or trust of a brightful future.

This is what LDP has led the nation to be a place where younger generation doesn't gives any hope or trust of a brightful future.

Sure they do. You're judging an entire generation by it's depressed. If you did that with every generation you would find that no one has ever had any hope or trust for a "brightful" future, and yet it's only improved throughout the history of humanity.

@Strangerland You are kidding, right? Around 400 high schools have closed since 1980 due to lack of students.

Anyone who poo poo’s the fact that Covid restrictions did not help in the rose of suicides is deluded. It’s recognised worldwide that measures caused, increased suicides, depression and obesity.

Anyone who poo poo’s the fact that Covid restrictions did not help in the rose of suicides is deluded. It’s recognised worldwide that measures caused, increased suicides, depression and obesity.

Inadvertently, yes.

It also directly caused more than 3-million deaths worldwide.

I hope people aren't so stupid as to think there was a solution that both kept deaths down AND kept depression down. Next those people will be telling us Utopia is a real place!

The LDP politicians doesn't cares anything about the children and neither a brightful future of the nation and next generation.

That's ridiculous. They are consistently passing laws trying to make it easier for people to have children, in a country where children are well supported.

Stranger

Only the vulnerable should have been shielded, the risk for the young was incredibly small. First time in history we have used the young to protect the older members of society.

There is no evidence of less deaths because of lockdowns or keeping kids from school, yet there is evidence that those measures caused more harm than good.

1 day record child abuse and Child suicidal rates are reported at alarming rates in Japan.

Alarming in what way? How many are there, and how does that compare to earlier times in history in Japan, and current times in other parts of the world?

how much is due to the overreaction to Covid

What makes you think it was an overreaction?

Suicides deaths have risen worldwide since the pandemic, due to plenty of reasons. Main one being the unnecessary measures like mask wearing, isolation from society etc.

You have never supporte this claim of yours that the measures in general were unnecessary, just that you arbitrarily wants to consider them as such, if the professionals in public health say the opposite then they are just much more likely to be correct, and problems would then be a consequence of the pandemic, not of the measures that helped avoiding a much worse situation.

The necessary covid restrictions just made clear how isolated and alone we are in this world.