The Yakuza Lobby
How Japan's murky underworld became the patron and power broker of the ruling party that intended to clean up politics.
TOKYO — Japan's leaders are going on trial this month -- in the court of public opinion, though some of them may be concerned about facing the more traditional kind.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), who has been in power for a bit over a year, dissolved Japan's parliament, the Diet on Nov. 16 after a series of scandals drove his poll numbers to an all-time low. The final straw was his appointment of mob-linked Justice Minister Keishu Tanaka, who resigned on Oct. 23 -- ostensibly for health reasons. A weekly magazine had reported on Oct. 11 that Tanaka had strong ties to the yakuza, Japan's organized crime groups -- which presumably isn't great for one's health.
The irony of the man in charge of the country's criminal justice system being friendly with organized crime was not lost on the Japanese public, especially at a time when there is a movement to crack down even harder on the yakuza. It was also an embarrassment to a political coalition that came to power in 2009 promising that it would bring "clean government." The rival Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had ruled Japan nearly uninterrupted for decades, had long been tied to Japan's underworld and ridden by scandals.
Since the DPJ came to power, organized crime ties have embarrassed several members of the party, including Tanaka. So how did the supposedly squeaky-clean reformers wind up in bed with Japan's answer to the Mafia? To understand this, it helps to look at the unique role the yakuza plays in Japanese politics.
The yakuza has its origins in federations of gamblers and street merchants of the Edo period (from the 17th to the 19th centuries), which evolved over time into the sprawling crime syndicates they are today. Currently, the yakuza comprises roughly 79,000 people, divided among 22 groups. Although referred to by authorities as "anti-social forces," it's actually a semilegal entity with offices, business cards, and fan magazines. The yakuza groups make their money through a combination of legal businesses -- like dispatching day laborers -- and illegal activities such as extortion, racketeering, and financial fraud. The largest yakuza group, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, has 39,000 members. The Inagawa-kai, the group most closely tied to former Justice Minister Tanaka, has 10,000 members and is based in Tokyo. Its offices are across from the Ritz-Carlton.
The Inagawa-kai was established in 1948. The organization's de facto leader, Kazuo Uchibori, was arrested on charges of money laundering in October but was released without being charged. Uchibori is a blood brother to a powerful leader in the Yamaguchi-gumi, Teruaki Takeuchi, essentially putting the Inagawa-kai under the Yamaguchi-gumi umbrella. The yakuza world is constructed like a virtual family, in which ties of brotherhood, often solidified in sake-drinking rituals, are the grounds for allegiances within yakuza groups and sometimes with rival groups as well.
In 2007, two years before it came to power, the DPJ received the coveted endorsement of the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Inagawa-kai. It was a relationship that worked out well, until recently. However bizarre it may sound, there's nothing particularly remarkable about an organized crime group supporting a political party in Japan. Robert Whiting's book, Tokyo Underworld, recounts how Yoshio Kodama, a yakuza associate and racketeer, was instrumental in the formation of the LDP. In 1994, LDP Transportation Minister Shizuka Kamei was able to keep his job after having admitted to receiving roughly $6 million, paid into his bank account directly from a Yamaguchi-gumi boss. He claimed he received the money on behalf of his constituents who had lost money investing with a real estate agency that turned out to be a yakuza front company. He stated that he returned the money to his constituents. Crime or not, that should be grounds for political dismissal. Not in Japan. In 2009, the DPJ coalition appointed Kamei as minister of financial services, tasked with overseeing the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and ensuring that Japan's financial markets stay clean.
But times have changed. The Japanese public is no longer so tolerant of politicians or companies with yakuza ties. In a 2007 white paper on crime, Japan's National Police Agency issued a warning that "the yakuza have made such incursions into the financial markets that they threaten the very basis of the Japanese economy." In that same year, a yakuza boss assassinated Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito after he attempted to cut the gangs out of public works projects. Japanese voters might have looked the other way at graft or low-level corruption, but political terrorism is another story. The yakuza had become an international embarrassment, as well. In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama recognized them as a threat to the United States, issuing an executive order that led to the U.S. Treasury Department's passing economic sanctions against the Yamaguchi-gumi and two of its leaders this year. They have simply become too big a liability and embarrassment for the world's third-largest economy to ignore.
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If you're a criminal, it always helps to have an ally in the Justice Ministry, and for some yakuza, Tanaka's appointment was seen as a match made in heaven -- especially for the head of the Inagawa-kai, Uchibori, who had been evading arrest on money-laundering charges since Aug. 22. Tanaka didn't have the power to stop the investigation of Uchibori, but his position could have enabled him to exert favorable influence. The Tokyo prosecutor's office is under the supervision of the Justice Ministry. Theoretically, Tanaka could have possibly recommended Japan's chief prosecutor to drop the Uchibori case; Uchibori was arrested on Oct. 9 but had not been formally charged for money laundering or other offenses while Tanaka was in power. Tanaka, for his part, initially claimed that he had only served as the "the matchmaker" at the wedding of an Inagawa-kai yakuza underboss and attended a yakuza party. A decade ago, that might have sufficed, but in today's political climate, he was forced to resign. But the DPJ's problems didn't end with Tanaka. The weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported on Oct. 18 that Koriki Jojima, the newly appointed finance minister, was backed in his reelection bid by an Inagawa-kai front company. Jojima claims he didn't know whom he was dealing with.
According to LDP Sen. Shoji Nishida, who has written in depth about DPJ ties to organized crime, "Tanaka is the fourth DPJ cabinet member to have been shown to have yakuza ties. Japan has always had a vibrant underworld, and it's always had a normal society. The current ruling government is the underworld and overworld put together. I believe that they've been a conduit for the underworld in the political sphere. The problem has been very underreported here." For those outside law enforcement or the mob, it's a bit surprising that the scandal is only breaking through now. The police first confirmed that the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Inagawa-kai had ordered their members to support the DPJ in the summer of 2007. According to reports in the daily newspaper Yukan Fuji, over 90 top bosses of the Yamaguchi-gumi were given orders to support the DPJ in upcoming elections. Many had been summoned to the organization's Kobe headquarters and been verbally instructed.
Top police officials said on background that they believe a senior DPJ official promised to keep criminal conspiracy laws off the books in exchange for votes and financial support from the crime group.
This makes sense. Japan does not have an equivalent of the U.S. RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, which was instrumental in helping U.S. authorities destroy the Italian-American Mafia in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan has most of the elements in place to create the equivalent of such an act and signed the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in December 2000 -- but so far the country has failed to fully implement it.
That's largely because the so-called "clean DPJ" has staunchly opposed legislation for a criminal conspiracy act, which would make it easier to prosecute yakuza bosses in criminal courts for the actions of their soldiers and seize their assets. According to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, the DPJ refused to even discuss the legislation when it was a minority party in 2006.
In the meantime, Japan's law enforcement community has been taking matters into its own hands. In an almost covert rebellion, the National Police Agency (NPA) has quietly worked to circumvent the national government by getting local ordinances in place around the country criminalizing paying off the yakuza or doing business with them.
One can see why the yakuza would back the DPJ, but what were the politicians getting out of it? Well, the yakuza are quite well funded, for one thing. Robert Feldman, an economist for Morgan Stanley Japan, once called the Yamaguchi-gumi Japan's "largest private-equity group." Jeff Kingston at Temple University has speculated in his book Contemporary Japan that if the crime group were listed on the stock exchange, it would rival Toyota.
The yakuza, which specialize in extortion and blackmail in their own business dealings, are also useful in finding dirt on political opponents and squelching criticism of their benefactors. And as one-third of the yakuza are Korean-Japanese, they are also useful in securing the support of ethnic Korean groups in Japan and getting political funding from the lucrative Korean-dominated pachinko (arcade-style gambling games) industry. They are also able to mobilize local community leaders and associates to "get out the vote."
However, following the Nagasaki mayor's assassination, the growing influence of the "yakuza money" became a public concern. On Sept. 29, 2009, Takaharu Ando, the head of the NPA, ordered all police in Japan to focus on dismantling the ruling faction of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Kodo-kai, stating, "The Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai are threatening police officers, are increasingly uncooperative, and expanding their economic activities into all realms of society." It was the first time the NPA had specifically targeted a single faction of the Yamaguchi-gumi since the so-called "war on the yakuza" was officially launched back in 1965. The police have begun to crack down intensely, after September 2009, on yakuza ties in all aspects of Japanese society, even in the almost-sacred world of sumo. They are also making renewed efforts to turn popular opinion against the yakuza -- who are still viewed as Robin Hood-like folk heroes by much of the population.
The first DPJ politician to really get in trouble for his mob connections was Seiji Maehara, head of the DPJ from 2005 to 2006. In March 2011, he was compelled to step down as foreign minister after it was revealed that he had received donations from Media 21, a production and real estate company that served as a front for the Yamaguchi-gumi and had made donations to several other DPJ members. According to Justice Ministry sources, the Tokyo prosecutor's office is investigating Maehara for falsifying his political donations records to hide his financial connections to Media 21.
Asked for comment for this article, Maehara told me, "First of all, in regard to what the Tokyo prosecutor's office is doing, whether they are investigating -- that is something that I really know nothing about. And also in regard to the alleged relation this company [Media 21] had with organized crime, I don't know anything about that. But I was aware that there were media reports saying such things, and as a result I decided that I would return all the money that was given to me [by Media 21]." The Tokyo prosecutor's office refused to comment on whether it was still investigating Maehara.
Of course, the issue is bigger than allegations against one official. Some have questioned whether Prime Minister Noda screened his cabinet appointments at all when selecting them for their current positions. Noda staunchly defended Tanaka, the justice minister, even after he admitted past yakuza ties. Noda himself had to return $20,000 in political donations this January after one of his supporters, the president of a discount funeral and wedding service provider, was arrested as a co-conspirator for fraud along with a yakuza member. In the recent book The Taboos of Japan No One Will Write, investigative journalist Hirotoshi Ito noted that Noda and other DPJ members received donations from the same Yamaguchi-gumi benefactor as Maehara, via different front companies. Records obtained by the author back up this claim.
The yakuza themselves may get out of this relatively unscathed. Even after his friend Tanaka's downfall, police sources say that Inagawa-kai crime boss Uchibori was not expecting to be arrested at all in October on the money-laundering charges that had been filed against him. Top members of the Inagawa-kai met covertly with weekly magazine reporters after Oct. 10, allegedly on Uchibori's orders, outing some other politicians connected to them. Police sources think the message was a warning to every politician with yakuza ties: If you fail to live up to your part of the bargain, the relationship is over and we'll make it a very messy breakup.
It was a successful threat -- Uchibori was not prosecuted for money laundering, and the charges were ostensibly dropped; no hard feelings. If one judges from the latest polls, the yakuza's friends in the DPJ probably won't be so lucky.
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Homelessness in Japan: Invisible and Tolerated
posted by John Spacey, Japan Talk, November 19, 2012 Japan is a wealthy country with a fairly equal distribution of wealth (relative to countries such as the United States). In other words, Japan has a large and thriving middle class. In fact, over 90 percent of Japanese people are considered middle class1.
Japan's reputation as a middle class paradise has led to a persistent myth that homelessness is nonexistent or rare in the country. The fact is that homeless people are commonly found in the parks of large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. There are an estimated 5000 homeless in Tokyo alone.
(homeless man and salary man side by side)
Treatment of Homeless
Japanese people tend to ignore the homeless and give them space. Homeless in Japan are rarely harassed by the police (or anyone).
Many homeless live in makeshift tent communities by rivers or in parks.
Japanese courts have defended homeless rights on several occasions. For example, courts ruled that homeless tents on public land can't be arbitrarily dismantled by police. Police must follow the same due process as an eviction from a regular rental apartment.
The Polite Homeless
Japanese homeless people are remarkably polite and quiet. They never ask for money. This is somewhat ironic because Japanese people would be likely to donate if asked.
Many survive by collecting recycling from garbage.
Homeless in Japan appear to try to stay out of the way. Building makeshift shelters in remote locations. When they slept in high traffic locations they often relocate during peak hours. For example, Shinjuku Central Park is filled with the homeless at night. In the morning they carefully pack up their belongings and put them off to the side. During the day, the park is filled with office workers. This seems to be a common arrangement throughout Japan.
Japanese homeless people are known to care for stray animals in urban parks.
Causes of Homelessness in Japan
The vast majority of Japanese homeless are men over the age of 40. There's a fair amount of age discrimination in Japan's labor market.
As in other countries, some Japanese homeless have mental health or alcohol problems.
On The Edge
In addition to the homeless there are a considerable number of Japanese youth who are living on the edge — sleeping in internet cafes and working temporary or part-time jobs.-
Political Corruption
Political corruption has been a feature of Japan's political system since World War II. The period after World War II reformed and democratized Japanese politics in many ways, for example, the 1947 constitution placed the Japanese Diet at the center of the formal political system and in theory removed important powers from the bureaucracy. However, the movement of power to the Japanese Diet probably served in part to foster corruption in post-war politics since it created a group of policy-makers who would be subject to lobbying by private sector interests and dependent on those interests to fund the expensive political activities necessary to stay in office. At the present time, corruption in Japanese electoral politics involves violations of campaign finance laws and related bribery and tax laws. Further, big business has been a source of campaign finance as long as political parties have existed in Japan.
Political corruption in Japan is a particularly interesting case because of what it suggests about law as a sanction in a non-western context. The criminal justice system in Japan is reluctant to rely on formal sanctions, and companies engaged in illegal behavior are rarely punished severely. The reluctance of the criminal justice system to enforce corruption laws also makes it difficult to assess the extent of political crime. The likelihood of going to jail for political corruption is so low that imprisonment does serve as a sufficient deterrent when compared to the expected benefits of political corruption. In addition, Japanese citizens tend to tolerate corruption by elected officials because these officials share the benefits of their illegal behavior with constituents.
Politicians are tempted to spend as much money as possible on their campaigns, often in excess of official campaign spending limits. In Japan, for example, election laws prescribe a limit for the amount of money candidates can spend during the campaign period. The spending limit depends on the number of registered votes per seat and the total voter population of the electoral district. In the 1980s and early 1990s, candidates of the long-term ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) exceeded the legal limit by at least six times and as much as thirteen times. Most of these funds come from corporate donations. The workings of the system were illustrated, for example, in the course of investigations of the 1992/3 Sagawa Transport scandal. In order to secure a good position in the deregulating transport sector in Japan, the company Sagawa paid about 2.5 billion Yen (approximately 25 million US$) in illegal campaign donations to 200 Diet members and leading local politicians of the LDP and opposition partie.
Another factor that might lead to corruption in the context of party activity in parliament is party discipline. A strong party leadership that controls the activities of all party members in parliament can use its authority to further democracy and political and economic development, and to benefit the public good. However, party leaders might also decide to support the agendas of wealthy organized interest or certain social groups in exchange for pay-offs, and pressure party members in parliament to support this agenda. In Japan, the long-term ruling Liberal Democratic Party used to relocate political decision-making from parliament into party committees. Diet members would decide in their party committees what position to take about certain issues. In parliament, party members mostly voted unanimously along party lines. Often, business and interest group representatives were present at such committee meetings, and party leaders made it a habit to introduce young Diet members to interest group representatives to initiate mutually advantageous relationships.
Public funding for political parties can be a valuable means to support the development of competitive political parties and to ensure transparency and fairness in election campaigns. By making parties less dependent on large campaign contributors, public funding can also stimulate more policy-oriented activities by party leaders. Public subsidies succeed in stabilizing party systems and in supporting the development of party organizations. On the other hand, experiences from industrialized countries with a long tradition of public subsidies have shown that public funding does not always produce a reduction in campaign spending. In the case of Japan, for example, the Law on Public Funding for Political Parties originally stated that public subsidies should not exceed two thirds of the amount a party received in contributions in the previous year. To ensure that they would receive the whole amount to which they were entitled due to their share of vote in the last elections and their number of seats in parliament, Japanese parties thus started increasing fund-raising campaigns, an effect contrary to the intentions of the law.
Japanese politicians traditionally competed for Diet seats based on their ability to "bring home the bacon" especially to rural constituencies. As a result, Japanese infrastructure projects are notoriously wasteful (e.g., rural roads with little traffic, bridges to islands with few residents, and expensive seldom-used harbor facilities for small fishing villages). Japanese construction firms are very inefficient compared with their counterparts in the United States and other developed countries. Infrastructure spending channeled taxpayer funds to one of Japan's least efficient sectors. Japanese politicians and political parties are heavily dependent on contributions from Japanese construction firms, while Japanese construction firms are heavily dependent on public infrastructure projects. This co-dependency has caused numerous "pay to play" scandals involving large illegal campaign contributions and payoffs from construction firms to policymakers. The exposure of these scandals and widespread waste in infrastructure spending by the Japanese media forced the government to reverse its policy in 1997. By 2004, infrastructure spending fell to 4.8 percent of GDP.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/politics-corruption.htm
Record high for youth suicide in Japan
The number of students who committed suicide last year in the country hit a record figure of 1,029, up 101 cases or 10.9 per cent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said Friday.
It was the first time that the number exceeded 1,000 since the NPA started recording statistics in 1978.
The NPA also reported the total number of suicides across the nation has exceeded 30,000 for 14 consecutive years up to 2011, though the number declined by 1,039, or 3.3 per cent, to 30,651 from the previous year.
Of the students, the number of university students who killed themselves rose by 16 to 529 from the previous year while the number of high school students who did so increased by 65 to 269, according to the NPA. The combined figures accounted for about 80 per cent of the total number of students who committed suicide.
By age group, the number of people 19 or younger who committed suicide rose by 12.7 per cent to 622 from the previous year, and the figure for those in their 20s increased by 2 per cent to 3,302.
Of the students, 140 committed suicide due to academic underachievement and 136 did so due to worries about their future after leaving school, the NPA said.
Of the total, the number of males who killed themselves decreased by 1,328 to 20,955 from the previous year, and the number of females increased by 289 to 9,696. The number of female suicides exceeded 30 per cent of the total for the first time since 1997.
By age, suicide victims in their 60s numbered 5,547 and formed the largest group among all age brackets, though the figure was down 6.1 per cent from the previous year.
Among the reasons given for 22,581 people committing suicide, the largest portion, 14,621, or 65 per cent, left indications that they had killed themselves due to health problems. The reasons were found in suicide notes or other evidence.
Those who committed suicide because of economic problems totaled 6,406, those who did so due to domestic problems numbered 4,547. School issues accounted for 429 cases, according to the NPA.
Meanwhile, 56 people killed themselves for reasons related to the Great East Japan Earthquake in the period from June 2011 through January this year, according to the Cabinet Office.
Regarding reasons for the disaster-related suicides, health issues and economic woes were cited as the main reasons for 16 victims respectively.
Young people suffering
Universities and other organisations across the nation have begun efforts to understand young persons' anguish.
"I can't imagine a better life in the future. I feel it is easier to die [than to keep living]," a long-haired boy in his late teens wearing jeans was quoted as saying by Yusen Maeda, a chief priest of a temple in Minato Ward, Tokyo.
At his temple, Maeda, 41, counsels and discusses the problems of young people seeking his advice.
In the winter of 2008, a university student came to the temple and told Maeda he was unable to join a social circle or make friends with any classmates, even after six months had passed since he entered the university.
"I don't know why I'm living," he was quoted as saying.
Because the student spoke in a calm manner, Maeda did not feel a sense of urgency in his message. However, he then found fresh scars from wrist-cutting on both of his arms.
The student, who met Maeda about 100 times over three years, quit university. He now is going to technical school for music in hopes of becoming a musician.
"It seems he finally found a life of his own after experiencing agony. I think there should be more places where young people can bare their true feelings," Maeda said.
Tsukuba University has a psychiatrist and counselor on campus on a regular basis.
According to the university's lecturer Jun Sato, 39, who meets with students for consultations, many of the students are worried about getting jobs and having relationships with friends. And an increasing number of students are in financial distress, he said.
Tsukuba, Yamaguchi and other universities have created a manual for teachers on proper relationships with students.
Toyama University set up a suicide prevention office at the end of 2009.
The office sometimes confirms the safety of students whose parents cannot contact them by visiting the students' dwellings.
"There is little chance lately [for young people] to be present at the deathbeds of [relatives] at home. I think death has become a less serious issue because of TV games and other things. We need to teach them the importance of life and death," said Hironobu Ichikawa, advisor at Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center.
It was the first time that the number exceeded 1,000 since the NPA started recording statistics in 1978.
The NPA also reported the total number of suicides across the nation has exceeded 30,000 for 14 consecutive years up to 2011, though the number declined by 1,039, or 3.3 per cent, to 30,651 from the previous year.
Of the students, the number of university students who killed themselves rose by 16 to 529 from the previous year while the number of high school students who did so increased by 65 to 269, according to the NPA. The combined figures accounted for about 80 per cent of the total number of students who committed suicide.
By age group, the number of people 19 or younger who committed suicide rose by 12.7 per cent to 622 from the previous year, and the figure for those in their 20s increased by 2 per cent to 3,302.
Of the students, 140 committed suicide due to academic underachievement and 136 did so due to worries about their future after leaving school, the NPA said.
Of the total, the number of males who killed themselves decreased by 1,328 to 20,955 from the previous year, and the number of females increased by 289 to 9,696. The number of female suicides exceeded 30 per cent of the total for the first time since 1997.
By age, suicide victims in their 60s numbered 5,547 and formed the largest group among all age brackets, though the figure was down 6.1 per cent from the previous year.
Among the reasons given for 22,581 people committing suicide, the largest portion, 14,621, or 65 per cent, left indications that they had killed themselves due to health problems. The reasons were found in suicide notes or other evidence.
Those who committed suicide because of economic problems totaled 6,406, those who did so due to domestic problems numbered 4,547. School issues accounted for 429 cases, according to the NPA.
Meanwhile, 56 people killed themselves for reasons related to the Great East Japan Earthquake in the period from June 2011 through January this year, according to the Cabinet Office.
Regarding reasons for the disaster-related suicides, health issues and economic woes were cited as the main reasons for 16 victims respectively.
Young people suffering
Universities and other organisations across the nation have begun efforts to understand young persons' anguish.
"I can't imagine a better life in the future. I feel it is easier to die [than to keep living]," a long-haired boy in his late teens wearing jeans was quoted as saying by Yusen Maeda, a chief priest of a temple in Minato Ward, Tokyo.
At his temple, Maeda, 41, counsels and discusses the problems of young people seeking his advice.
In the winter of 2008, a university student came to the temple and told Maeda he was unable to join a social circle or make friends with any classmates, even after six months had passed since he entered the university.
"I don't know why I'm living," he was quoted as saying.
Because the student spoke in a calm manner, Maeda did not feel a sense of urgency in his message. However, he then found fresh scars from wrist-cutting on both of his arms.
The student, who met Maeda about 100 times over three years, quit university. He now is going to technical school for music in hopes of becoming a musician.
"It seems he finally found a life of his own after experiencing agony. I think there should be more places where young people can bare their true feelings," Maeda said.
Tsukuba University has a psychiatrist and counselor on campus on a regular basis.
According to the university's lecturer Jun Sato, 39, who meets with students for consultations, many of the students are worried about getting jobs and having relationships with friends. And an increasing number of students are in financial distress, he said.
Tsukuba, Yamaguchi and other universities have created a manual for teachers on proper relationships with students.
Toyama University set up a suicide prevention office at the end of 2009.
The office sometimes confirms the safety of students whose parents cannot contact them by visiting the students' dwellings.
"There is little chance lately [for young people] to be present at the deathbeds of [relatives] at home. I think death has become a less serious issue because of TV games and other things. We need to teach them the importance of life and death," said Hironobu Ichikawa, advisor at Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center.
Schizophrenia is costing Japanese economy £15 billion a year
Schizophrenia is costing the Japanese economy more than £15 billion a year in health care, unemployment and suicides, according to new research published this month. Researchers from Tokyo and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) say Japan’s ageing population and the high cost of treating schizophrenia patients is imposing “a tremendous societal burden” on the world’s third-largest economy.
As an illness, schizophrenia is often overshadowed by depression and anxiety-related disorders, which are far more prevalent in Japan but actually have lower direct costs, according to a new paper recently published in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment.
Schizophrenia is recognised as the most expensive psychiatric disorder in the world in terms of health care expenditure per patient.
The number of psychiatric beds per capita in Japan is also approximately four times greater than that in the UK, according to the paper.
The direct costs of schizophrenia in Japan are estimated to be £4.3 billion, which includes health care and medication costs.
Of the indirect costs totalling £11 billion – which include unemployment and suicide – schizophrenia costs Japan less than the other two mental illnesses (depression and anxiety disorders), but the overall costs arising from unemployment are much higher.
“With schizophrenia, the costs imposed by unemployment constitute the largest component, whereas for depression and anxiety disorders, absenteeism and loss of productivity are more significant indirect costs,” says Professor Martin Knapp from LSE.
The ratio of all suicides attributed to schizophrenia in Japan is estimated at 9 per cent, equivalent to a cost of about £873 million cost per year.
“Because 40-60 per cent of patients with schizophrenia suffer from the impairment all their lives, Japan’s ageing society is adding to the economic burden,” Professor Knapp says.
“The figures are conservative and the actual cost to Japan is likely to be much higher as a result of a lack of available data,” he said.
The full paper can be downloaded at http://www.dovepress.com/the-cost-of-schizophrenia-in-japan-peer-reviewed-article-NDT-recommendation1
Ends
For media enquiries contact:
Professor Martin Knapp, Department of Social Policy, LSE on +44 (0)20 7955 6225 or m.knapp@lse.ac.uk
Mitsuhiro Sado, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, +81 3 3353 1211 ext 62454 or mitsusado@z5.keio.jp
Candy Gibson, LSE Press Office, +44 (0)20 7849 4624, or c.gibson@lse.ac.uk
Notes
The authors involved in this paper are:
Mitsuhiro Sado, Akihiro Koreki, Lee Andrew Kissane, Masaru Mimura and Kimio Yoshimura from the Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan;
Martin Knapp from the Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science;
Ataru Inagaki from the Center for Clinical Psychopharmacology, Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Tokyo, Japan;
The Journal of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment is an international, peer-reviewed journal of clinical therapeutics and pharmacology focusing on concise rapid reporting of clinical or pre-clinical studies on a range of neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders.
23 July 2013
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| News @ AsiaOne Record high for youth suicide in Japan Suicide rates among students increased nearly 11% last year. -Yomiuri Shimbun/ANN Sat, Mar 10, 2012 The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network The number of students who committed suicide last year in the country hit a record figure of 1,029, up 101 cases or 10.9 per cent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said Friday. It was the first time that the number exceeded 1,000 since the NPA started recording statistics in 1978. The NPA also reported the total number of suicides across the nation has exceeded 30,000 for 14 consecutive years up to 2011, though the number declined by 1,039, or 3.3 per cent, to 30,651 from the previous year. Of the students, the number of university students who killed themselves rose by 16 to 529 from the previous year while the number of high school students who did so increased by 65 to 269, according to the NPA. The combined figures accounted for about 80 per cent of the total number of students who committed suicide. By age group, the number of people 19 or younger who committed suicide rose by 12.7 per cent to 622 from the previous year, and the figure for those in their 20s increased by 2 per cent to 3,302. Of the students, 140 committed suicide due to academic underachievement and 136 did so due to worries about their future after leaving school, the NPA said. Of the total, the number of males who killed themselves decreased by 1,328 to 20,955 from the previous year, and the number of females increased by 289 to 9,696. The number of female suicides exceeded 30 per cent of the total for the first time since 1997. By age, suicide victims in their 60s numbered 5,547 and formed the largest group among all age brackets, though the figure was down 6.1 per cent from the previous year. Among the reasons given for 22,581 people committing suicide, the largest portion, 14,621, or 65 per cent, left indications that they had killed themselves due to health problems. The reasons were found in suicide notes or other evidence. Those who committed suicide because of economic problems totaled 6,406, those who did so due to domestic problems numbered 4,547. School issues accounted for 429 cases, according to the NPA. Meanwhile, 56 people killed themselves for reasons related to the Great East Japan Earthquake in the period from June 2011 through January this year, according to the Cabinet Office. Regarding reasons for the disaster-related suicides, health issues and economic woes were cited as the main reasons for 16 victims respectively. Young people suffering Universities and other organisations across the nation have begun efforts to understand young persons' anguish. "I can't imagine a better life in the future. I feel it is easier to die [than to keep living]," a long-haired boy in his late teens wearing jeans was quoted as saying by Yusen Maeda, a chief priest of a temple in Minato Ward, Tokyo. At his temple, Maeda, 41, counsels and discusses the problems of young people seeking his advice. In the winter of 2008, a university student came to the temple and told Maeda he was unable to join a social circle or make friends with any classmates, even after six months had passed since he entered the university. "I don't know why I'm living," he was quoted as saying. Because the student spoke in a calm manner, Maeda did not feel a sense of urgency in his message. However, he then found fresh scars from wrist-cutting on both of his arms. The student, who met Maeda about 100 times over three years, quit university. He now is going to technical school for music in hopes of becoming a musician. "It seems he finally found a life of his own after experiencing agony. I think there should be more places where young people can bare their true feelings," Maeda said. Tsukuba University has a psychiatrist and counselor on campus on a regular basis. According to the university's lecturer Jun Sato, 39, who meets with students for consultations, many of the students are worried about getting jobs and having relationships with friends. And an increasing number of students are in financial distress, he said. Tsukuba, Yamaguchi and other universities have created a manual for teachers on proper relationships with students. Toyama University set up a suicide prevention office at the end of 2009. The office sometimes confirms the safety of students whose parents cannot contact them by visiting the students' dwellings. "There is little chance lately [for young people] to be present at the deathbeds of [relatives] at home. I think death has become a less serious issue because of TV games and other things. We need to teach them the importance of life and death," said Hironobu Ichikawa, advisor at Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center. |
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