A century of suicide in Japan

By William Wetherall

Table 4

Crude and adjusted suicide rates
Females, 65+ age group, Japan, 1900-1990

Percent Percent Crude Rate Rate % drop % drop
Aged 65+ Total Aged 65+ Total Aged 65+ Aged 65+ suicide adjusted adjusted crude adj 1985
Year population population suicides suicides population suicides rate to 1985 to 1935 adj 1935 adj 1935 Year
a b c d e f g h i j k
100a/b 100c/d 100,000c/a 100(g-i)/g 100(h-i)/h
n 1 n 2 n 3 n 4/TD> n 4 n 5 n 5
1900 1,292,123 21,796,000 362 2,147 5.9 16.9 28.0 28.5 27.8 0.8 2.5 1900
1905 1,326,139 23,199,000 666 3,069 5.7 21.7 50.2 51.5 49.5 1.4 3.8 1905
1910 1,430,546 24,534,000 615 3,444 5.8 17.9 43.0 45.5 43.2 -0.5 5.0 1910
1915 1,589,081 26,287,000 743 3,650 6.0 20.4 46.8 49.5 47.1 -0.7 4.8 1915
1920 1,638,915 27,918,868 797 4,109 5.9 19.4 48.7 53.3 49.2 -1.1 7.7 1920
1925 1,701,759 29,723,713 834 4,728 5.7 17.6 49.0 50.3 48.7 0.6 3.3 1925
1930 1,745,127 32,059,850 943 5,132 5.4 18.4 54.0 55.7 53.2 1.5 4.5 1930
1935 1,850,640 34,520,015 1,013 5,438 5.4 18.6 54.7 57.6 53.9 1.5 6.4 1935
1940 1,992,600 36,545,600 927 4,036 5.5 23.0 46.5 50.7 46.3 0.5 8.7 1940
1945 2,137,000 38,104,000 5.6 1945
1950 2,380,921 42,387,877 1,574 6,491 5.6 24.2 66.1 70.9 66.4 -0.4 6.3 1950
1955 2,719,527 45,414,811 1,535 8,641 6.0 17.8 56.4 59.6 55.1 2.4 7.6 1955
1960 3,026,947 47,540,899 1,618 8,637 6.4 18.7 53.5 54.4 52.0 2.6 4.4 1960
1965 3,460,292 50,030,516 1,714 6,114 6.9 28.0 49.5 51.4 47.7 3.8 7.2 1965
1970 4,098,724 52,518,908 2,012 6,967 7.8 28.9 49.1 50.8 47.4 3.4 6.6 1970
1975 5,014,197 56,526,640 2,595 8,231 8.9 31.5 51.8 53.2 49.4 4.5 7.2 1975
1980 6,129,359 59,119,071 2,714 7,773 10.4 34.9 44.3 44.9 41.9 5.4 6.7 1980
1985 7,344,965 61,181,612 2,874 8,027 12.0 35.8 39.1 38.7 35.9 8.4 7.3 1985
1990 8,886,058 62,525,173 3,112 7,765 14.2 40.1 35.0 33.9 31.2 10.9 8.0 1990

Notes

  1. 1990 figures are preliminary counts. For all annual figures from 1899, see Table 7 in Wetherall, "Misreporting" (note 3).
  2. Blue populations interpolated, other populations computed, from tables compiled by author using Bureau of Statistics data.
  3. Total populations from Ministry of Health and Welfare, as provided by Bureau of Statistics for use with vital statistics.
  4. Red suicide counts interpolated by author from purple crude rates. Other suicide counts from MHW data. All rates computed by author.
  5. Adjusted rates computed by author, for maximum available number of age groups each year, to 1985 and 1935 total populations.