The National Police Agency says that suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the ninth consecutive year in 2006. While the total number, 32,155, was down 1.2 percent from 2005, the number of suicides among students, 886 — up 25 (2.9 percent) from 2005 — was the worst since 1978 when the NPA started compiling statistics.
The number of elementary school students who killed themselves doubled from seven to 14. The respective figures for middle and senior high school students increased by 15 (22.7 percent) to 81 and by five (2.3 percent) to 220.
In their suicide notes, 91 mentioned problems at school, an increase of 28.2 percent from 2005 — the largest number since 1998 when the survey of this category began. With or without suicide notes, police attributed school-related problems to 242 suicides, nine more than in 2005. For many children, school has become a hard place in which to survive.