Pandemic raises Japan death rate after decade of decline

Tokyo: The number of people taking their own lives in Japan rose for the first time in over a decade last year, as the pandemic reversed years of progress combating a stubbornly high suicide rate.

Japan’s health and welfare ministry said yesterday that 20,919 people died by suicide in 2020 according to preliminary data, up 3.7% from the previous year. That compares with 3,460 deaths from coronavirus in the same period.