TOKYO, June 7 (UPI) -- The number of suicides in Japan dipped by 1 percent in 2006 while remaining above 30,000 for the ninth year, police reported Thursday.
Suicides rose among two groups, students and the elderly, Mainichi Shimbun said. Fourteen of the students were still in elementary school, double the number of elementary school students who took their own lives in 2005.
The National Police Agency said bullying appeared to be behind the suicides of many students, while money trouble and poor health was responsible for those among the aging.
The NPA said that 11,120 elderly Japanese killed themselves during the year, a 2.1 percent increase. Of the 3,485 who left notes, 2,073 said they were suffering from poor health, while 670 blamed financial problems.
Yutaka Motohashi, a public health professor on the medical faculty at Akita University, recommends that government agencies should do more to prevent suicides, including monitoring students' mental health and supporting bereaved families.
