Last year's suicide is below 20,000, the lowest outlook since the survey began

Last year's suicide fell below 20,000 Minimum forecast since the survey began January 17 at 10:14

Last year, the number of people who committed suicide in the past year fell below 20,000 for the first time in the preliminary figures, and is expected to be the lowest since the survey began.

According to the summary of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of people who committed suicide last year was 19,959, a preliminary figure, which was 881, down 4.2% from the previous year.

It is the first time that annual suicides have fallen below 20,000 since 2010, when the preliminary figures were released.

In addition, although the final figures announced in March each year may increase the number of people, it is expected that the number will be the smallest since 1978 when we began investigating.

By gender, there are 13,937 males, 6022 females, and males are 2.3 times more female than females.

By prefecture, the highest number of suicides per 100,000 population was 22.3 in Yamanashi, followed by 21.9 in Akita and 21.7 in Iwate.

On the other hand, the lowest was Kanagawa prefecture with 11.5, followed by Kyoto with 12.4 and Osaka with 13.5.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, "the number of suicides is continuing to decline, but the serious situation is that nearly 20,000 people will die, and we would like to continue to take countermeasures."