August 29, 2025
TOKYO – About 3,400 minors aged 6 to 18 were transported by ambulance due to self-harm in 2022, according to an analysis by an organization for countermeasures against suicide. The analysis is based on statistics by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
In 2022, the number of elementary, junior high and high school students who died by suicide topped 500 for the first time. The analysis suggests that an even greater number of children and teens attempted to kill themselves in that year.
The Japan Suicide Countermeasures Promotion Center, a general incorporated association in Tokyo, analyzed the statistics. The center received the original data in a project subsidized by the Children and Families Agency in 2024 and released a report on its analysis in June.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency does not disclose age breakdowns of self-harm cases, meaning suicide attempts or other behavior that intentionally causes harm to oneself. Therefore, such details of self-harm cases have been unknown.
The center’s analysis showed that there were 3,436 self-harm cases in which individuals aged 6 to 18 were transported by ambulance in 2022. Those aged 16 to 18, or high school age, accounted for 65% of them at 2,239 cases, followed by 1,051 cases of those aged 13 to 15, or junior high school age, and 146 cases of those aged 6 to 12, or elementary school age.
In 2017, the total number of those in the same age brackets who were transported by ambulance due to self-harming behavior was 1,876, meaning that the figure increased by 80% over five years. In particular, the number of cases involving children of elementary school age increased by 140%. By gender, the number increased by 50% among boys while it doubled among girls.
Mayumi Hangai, who heads the center’s office for child and youth suicide countermeasures, points to the widespread use of social media as one factor for the increasing number of self-harm cases.
Hangai said social media makes it easy for children to be exposed to information that could result in death, such as information about over-the-counter drug overdoses. She also said children suffer declining self-esteem as a result of comparing themselves with others.
The number of those transported by ambulance includes people who were confirmed dead. According to statistics of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the National Police Agency, a total of 514 elementary, junior high and high school students killed themselves in 2022. Of those, 354 were high school students, 143 were junior high school students and 17 were elementary school students.
“Those who died are the tip of the iceberg, and there are many times more, or tens of times more, children who are obsessed about something,” Hangai said. “There may be cases in which an ambulance was not called, so countermeasures must be taken urgently.”
In 2024, a record 529 elementary, junior high and high school students took their own lives.
GRAPHICS: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
AloJapan.com