Japanese Teens Recognize Child Suicide as Serious Social Problem

The number of suicides by schoolchildren has remained high in Japan since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. In 2024 there were a record 527 deaths. In response to this situation, in January 2025 the Children and Families Agency conducted an online survey for the first time on the topic of child suicide, receiving responses from 724 children aged 15 to 18 and 1,600 adults aged 19 to 59.

The results showed that while 83.7% of children recognized “child suicide as a social problem,” the percentage of adults who felt the same was around 20 points lower at 62.0%.

A generation gap of more than 20 percentage points was also seen when it came to recognizing that child suicide could be a social problem that affected them personally and the people around them. In comparison to 77.7% of children agreeing this was the case, only 54.0% of adults felt so. A particularly high percentage of children responded that it could “very much” affect them.

In addition, children had higher awareness when it came to questions on matters related to suicide in Japan, such as “suicide is the leading cause of death for teens” and “one in five children have seriously considered or attempted suicide.”

Itō Jirō, representative director of OVA, a non-profit organization engaged in youth suicide prevention, stated “when children are driven to suicide, they may show signs of that in a range of settings, including at home, school, cram school, extracurricular activities, or part-time work. We need to focus on measures that help the adults around them to notice small changes in children who are in distress.”

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)