Specific measures to enhance suicide prevention in Japan.

Abstract

The General Principles of Suicide Prevention, which are Japanese guidelines on measures to prevent suicide, were devised in 2007 and then revised in 2012 and 2017. In addition, the Cabinet approved new general principles of suicide prevention on 14 October 2022. 1 The new general principles of suicide prevention include Enhanced Support for Women, Enhanced Measures to Prevent Suicide by Children and Young People, Enhanced Community Efforts to Prevent Suicide, and Enhanced General Measures to Prevent Suicide, indicating that efforts will be particularly directed at enhanced assistance to prevent suicide by women, children, and young people. 2,3 The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in 2020 and con-tinues at the time of writing, has had an effect. Suicides in Japan decreased annually from 32,845 in 2009 to 20,169