Abstract
Article 25(1) of the Constitution of Japan stipulates: “All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living.”
The original version of this chapter was revised: Final corrections have been incorporated. The erratum to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1500-7_10
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, family members are defined as first-degree relatives: spouses, parents, siblings, and children.
- 2.
Suicide victims of unknown age are excluded. This should not affect the estimates because they account for less than 1% of all suicide victims.
- 3.
Marital status is classified into 5 categories: married, single, widowed, divorced, and unknown.
- 4.
Data on suicide victims are divided into 19 age groups up to age 90 years and above, while data on marital status are divided into only 17 age groups up to age 80 years and above. To adjust for this difference, the same marital status was used for all suicide victims age 80 years and above.
- 5.
The birth year for suicide victims was calculated by subtracting the mid-point of their age group from the year of suicide. Note that suicide victims of age 90 years and above were treated as people of age 92 years.
- 6.
Whenever γ became larger than 1, it was set to 1. γ can be larger than 1 due to immigration and missing observations.
- 7.
Data on population and birth rates are taken from “Population Statistics of Japan 2008,” published by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
- 8.
The average age of women at childbirth was calculated based on “Average Age of Women at Birth by Birth Order” in Population Statistics of Japan 2008 by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
- 9.
Data on fertility rates are divided into 7 age groups from 15 to 49 years.
- 10.
The average unmarried rates in 1995 and 2002 in Japan were taken from the “Census” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The unmarried rate for suicide victims was taken from the “2004 Vital Statistics’ Special Report of Japan” of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The data for other years were calculated through linear interpolation in a similar manner as Eq. (2).
- 11.
By using this approach, children who lost a parent who was less than 30 years old are assigned an age of less than 0 years old. In these cases, the survival rate was set to 1.
- 12.
These data were published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
- 13.
The survival rate is thought to have increased over time. On the other hand, the birth rate is thought to have decreased over time. This chapter assumes that the latter has a greater effect than the former. Although it is not certain that the birth rate increases continuously back through the time period evaluated, even if this factor is changed, the results remain intact.
- 14.
- 15.
The “Life Table” shows that the probability of death for the elderly increases approximately in a geometric progression.
- 16.
This is based on the following facts and assumptions. The total population of Japan is 127 million; the population of the labor force is 65 million; 5% of the labor force is jobless; and the number of suicides is 30,000. The suicide rate calculated using the total population as the denominator would be 0.024% and the number of suicides would account for 0.9% of the total number of the jobless.
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Sawada, Y., Ueda, M., Matsubayashi, T. (2017). Rationale Behind Suicide Prevention Policies. In: Economic Analysis of Suicide Prevention. Economy and Social Inclusion. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1500-7_2
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