Last year's high unemployment rate and numerous bankruptcies led to a surge in suicides across the country, which topped 30,000 for the first time.

A total of 31,734 people committed suicide in 1998, according to a demographic report released by the Health and Welfare Ministry Friday. The figure represents a 35-percent rise from the previous year's 23,494.

The increase was especially dramatic among men.

Of the suicides, 22,338 were men, exceeding 20,000 for the fist time and 140 percent of the previous year's 15,901.

An unprecedented surge in the number of suicides was seen among middle-aged men in their 50s, the common targets of corporate restructuring measures. An increase of more than 2,000 men in this category committed suicide than during the previous year.

A large increase was also seen among men in their late 40s and men in their late 60s, each group seeing a 600-person increase from respective figures in 1997.

Suicide was the top cause of death for men in their late 20s to 30s, and was the second-leading cause of death among those in their 40s and early 50s.

Suicide also claimed more women, with 9,396 women taking their lives, up from 7,593 the previous year.

Although the figures do not include data on why the victims killed themselves, it is significant that the victims are commonly those who should be at the prime of their careers, said Hiroshi Kawahito, a lawyer and leading member of a lawyers group researching death caused by overwork.

"Salaried and self-employed workers are finding themselves at the end of their rope economically and psychologically due to the recession and restructuring measures," he said.

Bullying within the workplace is a common strategem in corporate restructuring, with targets often pressured into unrewarding or impossible tasks, or subjected to pay cuts, to indirectly compel them to resign.

"In most cases, the victims are not those who are unemployed," Kawahito said. "Most have been crushed under the overwhelming fear that they might lose their jobs."

Companies must put a halt to inhumane restructuring, said Kawahito, calling for an effective employment system for middle-aged and senior citizens, who are besieged by fears that they will not be able to find jobs if they quit their current ones.

"It is important to establish a work environment where people can work without the fear of being laid off, " Kawahito said.