All Daisuke Tajima could think about was ending it all. One day the 49-year-old salaried worker walked out of his office in a city in northern Japan, and for weeks his family had no clue as to his whereabouts.

To get as much space between himself and his workplace, he headed west to Kobe, wandering from hotel to hotel in search of a place to quietly take his life. He drank heavily and finally made a failed attempt to hang himself.

Tajima (not his real name) tells a story that says much about the plight of Japan's middle-aged salaried workers, a bracket of Japanese society that revealed a startling penchant for suicide last year.

According to Health and Welfare Ministry data, there were 31,734 suicides in 1998 — a record figure representing a 30 percent rise over 1997 and over three times the number of deaths from automobile accidents.

The largest increase was seen in men in their 40s to mid-50s: Their suicide rate rocketed some 40 percent.

The media's scapegoat for this increase is Japan's drawn-out recession. A sprinkling of "inseki-jisatsu," literally "suicides to take responsibility," for a company screw-up or scandal, add a unique cultural touch.

Yoshitomo Takahashi, deputy head of the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry's Department of Psychopathology, said that while the recession is not unrelated, news reports have failed to show suicide as an extremely complex form of death.

"The Japanese media tend to oversimplify the cause and effect: Middle-aged man, economic depression, suicide. But suicide is multifactorial," Takahashi said.

Other factors, such as depression, previous suicide attempts and stress, have been almost ignored, he added.

Shizuo Machizawa, a professor at Rikkyo University who runs the Machizawa Mental Health Clinic, supports this view, adding the "generation factor" to the list of possible influences.

Middle-aged men who have been brought up to dedicate their lives to the company, he said, are caught between two conflicting generations — one accustomed to a clearly defined employee ranking system and another for whom work simply facilitates an enjoyable life outside the office.

"They've become like the center of a sandwich: They have to remain polite to their feudalistic superiors above and, meanwhile, worry if the individualist juniors below are doing their work right," Machizawa said.

This group, often middle management, is also charged with carrying out superiors' restructuring measures, Machizawa said.

Stress and psychosomatic illnesses, such as depression and hypertension, are common results. "It's no wonder they seek a way out," he said.

Takahashi of the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry does not rule out the influence of Japan's lingering recession.

The middle-aged generation, he said, was born just after World War II, a time of unrivaled social change and tight job competition in Japan. Now they are having to go through "tumultuous change" all over again.

"In the 1950s and '60s there was a huge jump in the suicide rate among people in this group, then in their 20s.

This group is still showing a high suicide rate now in middle age," he said.

A similar pattern is found among baby boomers in the U.S. Suicide rates in that group were high in their 20s and again in middle age, he added.

Takahashi also believes the media has had a part to play.

Media coverage following the suicides of prominent figures such as Diet lawmaker Shokei Arai and the heads of three auto parts manufacturers in February 1998 is described by Takahashi as "a kind of mass hysteria."

Between 1988 and 1997 the average per-day suicide rate remained around 60, rising last year to around 80. In the period from March through June, however, the daily rate averaged between 95 and 110, Takahashi said.

"This might have had something to do with the sensationalized media reporting."

Japanese attitudes toward suicide and psychiatric treatment are also considered contributing factors.

According to Takahashi, the common view in Japan is that suicide is "just one form of death that can't be helped."

"If someone wants to commit suicide, who can stop them? — this kind of attitude prevails," he said.

Kyoko Ono of the Tokyo Psychiatric Academy, a private counseling and counselor training center, said that while Japanese women and young people show less resistance to psychiatric treatment, there is still a stigma attached to it among middle-aged men.

Due to the social norms they have grown up with, this group "won't seek help," Ono said. "When they suffer a breakdown, they are ashamed to talk about it."

This is especially true of discussing problems face to face with a complete stranger, according to Yukiko Nishihara, founder of the Suicide Prevention Center in Tokyo.

The center, which opened last June, operates a help line from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily for those considering suicide. In recent months, it has received an average of 20 to 30 calls per day, many from middle-aged salaried workers.

"Over the phone it's different, they feel more comfortable talking about their problems," Nishihara said, adding that many of them cite company closures or restructuring as the reason for wanting to commit suicide. "Many have lost their jobs and ... can no longer find meaning in their lives," she added.

Hiroshi Kawahito, a lawyer representing families seeking compensation for victims of "karoshi" (death caused by overwork), recently established an association of lawyers and doctors in response to the sudden rise in suicides.

The group, which held an introductory symposium in Tokyo last week titled "Value Life! Emergency Symposium on Suicides of Salaried Workers," aims to analyze the causes of suicides and set up prevention measures.

Kawahito is also a member of a group that in 1988 inaugurated an annual hotline to counter karoshi and, as of this year, suicide.

This year's hotline, held June 21 and connected to 35 offices nationwide, received some 300 calls, according to Kawahito. More than 16 percent dealt with suicide.

While Kawahito believes company management is lax in informing employees about mental health issues, Rikkyo University's Machizawa said some firms are already taking steps.

Machizawa is currently conducting "awareness" sessions and seminars at a leading electronics company in Tokyo, and said there are some 300 such counselors doing similar work throughout Japan.

Takahashi, meanwhile, said these strategies are insufficient, and more efforts are needed at the government level.

In 1993 Takahashi participated in a World Health Organization-backed meeting in Canada to formulate guidelines for the prevention of suicide.

He subsequently relayed a 30-page document resulting from the meeting to the Health and Welfare Ministry. A ministry official he met recently, however, said he had never heard of such a document.

"Mental illness always comes last," he said. "Whenever there's a budgetary problem, it's the first to be cut. This is not only true in Japan, but all over the world — especially in Asia," where mental health often has to play second to physical health.

Machizawa conceded that attitudes toward mental illness are still a huge barrier.

In companies where consultation services are available, many who use them request that their problem not be referred to as a psychological illness, fearing company officials may hear about it.

"One bank official I treated for depression insisted on returning to the office despite still showing depressive signs," Machizawa said. "He feared his absence would jeopardize his position."

The man eventually took his own life.