The Self-Defense Forces are struggling to curb suicides in its ranks, a serious problem that has haunted the military's 240,000 members for years.
A total of 83 members of the SDF killed themselves between fiscal 2007 and March 2008, and the suicide ratio stands at 34.4 per 100,000 people.
On the surface, the ratio does not seem remarkably high because it is smaller than the 37.7 suicide ratio for men in the general public. Some 95 percent of SDF personnel are men.