The deaths of elderly people helped push the country's overall number of suicides to 33,093 in 2007, a 2.9 percent increase and the second-highest annual tally on record since 1978, the National Police Agency said in a yearly report.
Suicides involving people over the age of 60 rose by almost 9 percent to 12,107, making up nearly 40 percent of all cases in Japan, the National Police Agency said. The number of elderly suicides eclipsed the previous record high of 11,529 in 2003.
Experts believe that one of the reasons for suicide in elderly could be the increasing number of older people in Japanese society, which has put a huge burden on the country's pension and healthcare agencies.
The number of Japanese aged 65 or older hit a record high of more than 27 million in 2007, or 21.5 percent of the population, the government reported in May. Those 75 or older accounted for nearly 10 percent.
Major reasons sighted for the high suicide risk includes health problems with a staggering 56 percent. Second in line, at 15 percent, is financial and economic constraints according to the report.
The South-Asian nation has the ninth highest suicide rate in the whole world. With an aim to bring down the suicide rate by a sound 10 percent, the country has reportedly allocated $220 million toward developing sound anti-suicide programs.
