Japan reports suicides faster and more accurately than anywhere else in the world. Unlike most countries, here they are compiled at the end of every month. During the Covid pandemic the numbers have told a disturbing story.

日本報告自殺率的速度比世界上任何地方都要快，也更準(zhǔn)確。與大多數(shù)國家不同的是，日本的自殺數(shù)據(jù)是在每個月底匯編的。在新冠肺炎大流行期間，這些數(shù)字的變化令人不安。

In 2020, for the first time in 11 years, suicide rates in Japan went up. Most surprising, while male suicides fell slightly, rates among women surged nearly 15%.

2020年，日本的自殺率11年來首次上升。最令人驚訝的是，在這期間，日本男性自殺率略有下降，但女性自殺率卻飆升了近15%。
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In one month, October, the female suicide rate in Japan went up by more than 70%, compared with the same month in the previous year.

10月份，日本女性自殺率比去年同期上升了70%以上。
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What is going on? And why does the Covid pandemic appear to be hitting women so much worse than men?

到底發(fā)生了什么?為什么新冠肺炎大流行對女性的影響似乎比男性嚴(yán)重得多?

Warning: Some may find the content of this story upsetting

警告:一些人可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)背后的故事令人不安
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Meeting face-to-face with a young woman who has repeatedly tried to kill herself is a troubling experience. It has given me new respect for those who work on suicide prevention.

與一位多次試圖自殺的年輕女子面對面交談是一種令人不安的經(jīng)歷。這讓我對那些從事自殺預(yù)防工作的人產(chǎn)生了新的敬意。

I am sitting in a walk-in centre in Yokohama's red-light district, run by a suicide prevention charity called the Bond Project.

此刻我正坐在橫濱紅燈區(qū)的一個無需預(yù)約即可上門的服務(wù)中心里，該中心由一個名為“情感紐帶計(jì)劃”(Bond Project)的預(yù)防自殺慈善機(jī)構(gòu)運(yùn)營。

Across the table is a 19-year-old woman, with bobbed hair. She sits motionless.

我桌子對面是一位留著短發(fā)的19歲女子，她正一動不動的坐著。

Quietly, without any emotion, she starts to tell me her story. It started when she was 15, she says. Her older brother began violently abusing her.

她靜靜地，不帶一絲感情地開始給我講述她的故事。她告訴我，從她15歲開始，她哥哥就開始暴力虐待她。

Eventually she ran away from home, but it didn't end the pain and the loneliness.

最后她離家出走了，但她的痛苦和孤獨(dú)并沒有就此終結(jié)。

Ending her life seemed the only way out.

結(jié)束自己的生命于她來說似乎是唯一的出路。

"From about this time last year I have been in and out of hospital many times," she tells me. "I tried many times to kill myself, but I couldn't succeed, so now I guess I have given up trying to die."

“大約從去年的這個時候起，我就成了醫(yī)院的?？停彼嬖V我，“我試過很多次自殺，但都沒成功，所以現(xiàn)在我想我已經(jīng)放棄自殺了?！?/b>

What stopped her was the intervention of the Bond Project. They found her a safe place to live, and began giving her intensive counselling.

正是因?yàn)椤扒楦屑~帶計(jì)劃”的干預(yù)才阻止了她自殺的想法。他們給她找了一個安全的地方居住，同時開始對她進(jìn)行強(qiáng)化心理輔導(dǎo)。

Jun Tachibana is the founder of the Bond Project. She is a tough woman in her 40s with relentless optimism.

立花雅子(Jun Tachibana)是“情感紐帶計(jì)劃”的創(chuàng)始人。40多歲的她是一位堅(jiān)強(qiáng)，有著不屈不撓的樂觀精神的女性。
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Jun Tachibana
image caption：Ms Tachibana hopes the Bond Project provides women with the help they need

圖片說明:立花雅子希望“情感紐帶計(jì)劃”能為女性提供她們所需要的幫助

"When girls are in real trouble and in pain, they really don't know what to do," she says. "We are here, ready to listen to them, to tell them - we are here with you."

“當(dāng)女孩們遇到真正的麻煩和痛苦時，她們真的不知道該怎么做，”她說。“而我們在這里，準(zhǔn)備傾聽他們的聲音，告訴他們，我們永遠(yuǎn)和你們站在一起?！?/b>

Ms Tachibana says Covid seems to be pushing those who are already vulnerable closer to the edge. She describes some of the harrowing calls her staff have received in recent months.

立花雅子表示，新冠肺炎似乎正在把那些原本已經(jīng)很脆弱的人推向死亡邊緣。她描述了她的員工最近幾個月接到的一些令人痛心的電話。

"We hear lots of 'I want to die' and 'I have no place to go'," she says. "They say 'It is so painful, I am so lonely I want to disappear'."

“我們聽到很多說‘我想死’和‘我無處可去’的電話，”她說。“她們說著‘這太痛苦了，我太孤獨(dú)了，我想從世界上消失’的話?！?/b>

For those suffering physical or sexual abuse, Covid has made the situation much worse.

對于那些遭受身體或性虐待的人來說，新冠病毒則使情況變得更加惡化。

"A girl I talked to the other day said she is getting sexually harassed by her father," Ms Tachibana tells me. "But because of Covid her father is not working so much and is at home a lot, so there is no escape from him."

立花雅子告訴我說，前幾天跟她聊過的一個女孩說，她受到了自己父親的性騷擾。但因?yàn)樾鹿诜窝椎脑?，她的父親不怎么出去工作，經(jīng)常在家，這使得她自己無法逃離其父親的魔爪。

A 'very unusual' pattern

“極其不尋?！钡哪Ｊ?/b>

If you look at previous times of crisis in Japan, such as the 2008 banking crisis or the collapse of Japan's stock market and property bubble in the early 1990s, the impact was largely felt by middle aged men. Large spikes were seen in male suicide rates.

如果你回顧一下日本以前的危機(jī)，比如2008年的金融危機(jī)，或者上世紀(jì)90年代初日本股市和房地產(chǎn)泡沫的破裂，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，在這些危機(jī)中主要受影響的是中年男性。男性自殺率在這些事件中出現(xiàn)了大幅上升。

But Covid is different, it is affecting young people and, in particular, young women. The reasons are complex.

但新冠肺炎不同，它影響的是年輕人，尤其是年輕女性。原因很復(fù)雜。


Japan used to have the highest suicide rate in the developed world. Over the last decade it has had great success in reducing suicide rates by around a third.

日本曾經(jīng)是發(fā)達(dá)國家中自殺率最高的國家。不過在過去的十年里，它已經(jīng)成功地將自殺率降低了約三分之一。

Professor Michiko Ueda is one of Japan's leading experts on suicide. She tells me how shocking it has been to witness the sharp reverse in the last few months.

上田美智子教授是日本頂尖的自殺研究專家之一。她告訴我，在過去短短幾個月里目睹這種自殺率急劇逆轉(zhuǎn)令她非常震驚。

"This pattern of female suicides is very, very unusual," she tells me. "I have never seen this much [of an] increase in my career as a researcher on this topic. The thing about the coronavirus pandemic is the industries hit most are industries staffed by women, such as tourism and retail and the food industries."

“這種女性自殺的模式非常非常不尋常，”她告訴我?！白鳛橐幻芯窟@一課題的研究人員，我的職業(yè)生涯中從未見過如此快速增長的自殺率。在冠狀病毒大流行期間，最受沖擊的行業(yè)大多是女性從事的行業(yè)，如旅游業(yè)、零售業(yè)和食品業(yè)。”

Japan has seen a large rise in single women living alone, many of them choosing that over marriage which entails quite traditional gender roles still. Prof Ueda says young women are also far more likely to be in so-called precarious employment.

一直以來，日本單身女性數(shù)量大幅增加，其中許多人選擇單身而不是結(jié)婚主要是因?yàn)榻Y(jié)婚后女性仍需要承擔(dān)相當(dāng)傳統(tǒng)的性別角色。上田教授表示，年輕女性從事所謂不穩(wěn)定工作的可能性也大得多。

Michiko Ueda
image caption：Prof Ueda calls the pattern of female suicides "very unusual"

圖片說明:上田教授稱女性自殺的模式“非常不尋?！?/b>

"A lot of women are not married anymore," she says. "They have to support their own lives and they don't have permanent jobs. So, when something happens, of course, they are hit very, very hard. The number of job losses among non-permanent staff are just so, so large over the last eight months."

“現(xiàn)在很多女性選擇不再結(jié)婚了，”她說。“她們必須養(yǎng)活自己，她們沒有固定的工作。所以，當(dāng)某些危機(jī)發(fā)生時，當(dāng)然，她們會受到非常、非常沉重的打擊。在過去8個月里，非固定員工的失業(yè)人數(shù)非常非常多。”

One month really stands out. In October last year, 879 women killed themselves. That is more than 70% higher than the same month in 2019.

拿出一個月的數(shù)據(jù)足以說明形勢的嚴(yán)峻性。僅去年10月，日本就有879名女性自殺。這比2019年同期高出70%以上。

Newspaper headlines sounded the alarm. Some compared the total number of suicides by men and women in October (2,199) to the total number of deaths in Japan from Coronavirus up to that point (2,087).

報紙標(biāo)題也敲響了警鐘。一些人將10月份男性和女性自殺的總?cè)藬?shù)(2199人)與當(dāng)時日本因冠狀病毒死亡的總?cè)藬?shù)(2087人)進(jìn)行了比較。

Something particularly strange was happening.

特別離奇的事情發(fā)生了。

On 27 September last year, a very famous and popular actress named Yuko Takeuchi was found dead at her home. It was later reported that she had taken her own life.

去年9月27日，一位非常著名和受歡迎的日本女演員竹內(nèi)侑子被發(fā)現(xiàn)死于家中。后來有報道稱其死因是自殺。
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image caption：Japanese actress Yuko Takeuchi was found dead at her own home at 40

圖片說明: 年僅40歲的日本女演員竹內(nèi)侑子被發(fā)現(xiàn)死于自己家中

Yasuyuki Shimizu is a former journalist who now runs a non-profit organisation (NPO) dedicated to combatting Japan's suicide problem.

清水保之以前是一名記者，現(xiàn)在經(jīng)營著一家致力于解決日本自殺問題的非營利組織。

"From the day the news of a celebrity suicide is reported, the number of suicides increases and stays that way for about 10 days," he says.

他說:“從名人自殺的新聞被報道的那一天起，日本自殺的人數(shù)就進(jìn)一步上升了，這種上升趨勢持續(xù)了10天左右?！?/b>

"From the data we can see that the suicide of the actress on 27 September led to an extra 207 female suicides in the next 10 days."

“從數(shù)據(jù)中我們可以看出，9月27日女演員的自殺事件之后的接下來10天里又誘發(fā)了207名女性自殺?！?/b>

If you look at the data for suicides by women around the same age as Yuko Takeuchi, the statistics are even more stark.

如果你關(guān)注與竹內(nèi)侑子年齡相仿的女性自殺的數(shù)據(jù)，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)數(shù)據(jù)更加明顯。

"Women in their 40s were most influenced out of all the age groups," Mr Shimizu says. "For that group it (the suicide rate) more than doubled."

清水先生表示:“在所有年齡段中，40多歲的女性受影響最大。這一群體的自殺率增加了一倍多?！?/b>

Other experts agree that there is a very strong connection between celebrity suicides and an immediate uptick in suicides in the days following.

其他專家也認(rèn)為，名人自殺與隨后幾天自殺率的迅速上升之間存在著很強(qiáng)的聯(lián)系。

The celebrity phenomenon

名人效應(yīng)

This phenomenon is not unique to Japan, and it is one reason why reporting on suicide is so difficult. In the immediate aftermath of a celebrity suicide, the more it is discussed in the media, and on social media, the greater the impact on other vulnerable people.

這種現(xiàn)象并不是日本獨(dú)有的，這也是為什么報道自殺如此困難的原因之一。名人自殺后，媒體和社交媒體上討論得越多，對其他弱勢群體的影響就越大。

One of the NPO's researchers is Mai Suganuma. She is herself a victim of suicide. When she was a teenager, her father took his own life. Now she helps to support the families of others who have killed themselves.

杉沼麥?zhǔn)荖PO的研究人員之一。她自己就是自殺的受害者。在她十幾歲的時候，她的父親自殺了。而現(xiàn)在她致力于幫助那些家庭成員自殺的家庭走出傷痛。

And just as Covid is leaving relatives unable to grieve for those who have succumbed to the virus, so it is making life for the families of suicide victims much more difficult.

正如新冠肺炎讓患者的親屬無法哀悼那些死于病毒的人一樣，它也讓自殺者的家庭生活更加困難。

"When I talk to the family members, their feeling of not being able to save the loved one is very strong, which often results in them blaming themselves." Mai Suganuma tells me. "I too blamed myself for not being able to save my father.

“當(dāng)我和受害者家屬交談時，他們那種無法挽救所愛的人的絕望感非常強(qiáng)烈，這往往讓他們非常地自責(zé)?！?杉沼麥告訴我?！拔乙苍?zé)怪自己沒能救下我的父親?！?/b>

"Now they are being told they must stay at home. I worry the feelings of guilt will grow stronger. Japanese people don't talk about death to begin with. We do not have a culture to talk about the suicides."

“現(xiàn)在他們被告知必須呆在家里。我擔(dān)心待在家里會讓他們內(nèi)疚的感覺變得越來越強(qiáng)烈。日本人不熱衷于談?wù)撍劳?。我們沒有談?wù)撟詺⒌奈幕??！?/b>

Japan is now in a so-called third wave of Covid infections, and the government has ordered a second state of emergency. It is likely to be extended well into February. More restaurants and hotels and bars are closing their doors. More people are losing their jobs.

日本現(xiàn)在正處于所謂的第三波新冠病毒疫情中，政府已經(jīng)下令全國第二次進(jìn)入緊急狀態(tài)。這種狀態(tài)很可能會延長到2月份。越來越多的餐館、酒店和酒吧關(guān)門歇業(yè)了。越來越多的人也因此失去了工作。


image caption: The third wave of the virus has caused Japan's streets to once again fall empty

圖片說明:第三波病毒使日本的街道再次空空如也

For Prof Ueda there is another nagging question. If this is happening in Japan, with no strict lockdowns, and relatively few Covid deaths, then what is happening in other countries where the pandemic is much worse?

對上田美智子教授來說，還有另一個惱人的問題。如果在沒有嚴(yán)格的封鎖，而且新冠肺炎死亡人數(shù)相對較少的日本都發(fā)生著這么糟糕的事情，那么在疫情嚴(yán)重得多的其他國家發(fā)生了什么?