TOKYO: The number of suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the ninth straight year in 2006, the government said on Friday, urging employers to do more to tackle depression at work.

Japan’s suicide rate has shot up since the mid-1990s to become one of the highest outside the former Soviet Union as the Japanese ideal of lifetime job security crumbled away amid years of economic recession.

With more jobs now available because of a recent economic recovery, the number of suicides dropped 1.2 per cent last year, although it is still above the 30,000 mark — 32,155, according to a government white paper that quoted police estimates.

Among the Japanese who took their lives, men between 55 and 64 made up more than half, according to the white paper, the first since a suicide prevention law was passed by the government last year amid concerns about the high numbers.

About 48 per cent of the total were unemployed, with health concerns, financial difficulties and family problems seen as the main motives.

The health ministry reported in June that 29,887 Japanese killed themselves last year, a fall of 2.2 per cent from 2005.—AFP