Naruhito calls for more efforts to prevent suicides

TOKYO: Japan’s struggle with suicide has been well-documented even as deaths due to suicide had been declining for 11 straight years until Covid-19 hit.

From the country’s notorious “suicide forest” of Aokigahara – one of the world’s most-used suicide sites – to Takahiro Shiraishi, rapist and serial killer who used Twitter to lure suicidal women to his home, the spectre of suicide looms large over Japan and its perception abroad.Suicide has been consistently ranked among the top 10 causes of death in Japan for the past decade.