Tokyo - Japan's worst postwar recession drove an increasing number of people to suicide in 2008, the National Police Agency said Thursday. Last year, 32,249 people committed suicide in Japan, it said. Although the number declined 2.6 per cent from 2007, it exceeded 30,000 for the 11th year in a row and more of the suicides were related to the economy, the agency said.
Financial problems were blamed for 7,404 of the suicides, up 1.2 per cent from 2007.
The number of those who committed suicide after they failed to land new jobs increased 40.6 per cent from last year while the number of those who were driven to take their own lives because they lost their jobs rose by 20.4 per cent, the agency said
