The government outlined suicide-prevention guidelines Friday featuring a reduction target of at least 20 percent by 2016.

The package was formulated after it was reported that more than 30,000 people killed themselves in 2006, the ninth straight year that level has been exceeded.

Japan's first comprehensive antisuicide guidelines are based on a basic prevention law put into place last October. If the target is realized, the suicide rate should decrease to 19.4 per 100,000 people in 2016 from 24.2 in 2005.