Japan: The worse the weather, the more people commit suicide

The number of suicides on railroads in Japan increased sharply after bad weather days, forcing operators to increase surveillance during rainy days.

The information was released on September 26 in a study by Professor Hiroshi Kadotani at Shiga University of Medical Sciences. The purpose of Kadotani's work is to find a close relationship between mood and weather, thus discovering the cause of suicide cases in Japan.

The number of suicides in Japan increased sharply after rainy days.(Photo: eastbound88)

Professor Kadotani studied 971 suicides in the period of 2002-2006 at three major Japanese trade centers including Tokyo, Kanagawa and Osaka.

Accordingly, the researchers found the number of deaths increased sharply after 3-7 days of bad weather such as cloudy or rainy, no sunshine.

Japan is one of the developed countries with the highest suicide rate in the world. 2012 was the first year in 15 years of suicide cases in Japan under 30,000 cases.

The study urged railroad operators to intensify the use of white or green lights at the station to reduce the number of suicides.

Although the psychological mechanism has not been clearly demonstrated, a previous study has shown that the use of green light bulbs in the train station helps to reduce the number of suicides in Japan.

'Green light at train stations has been effective in reducing the number of self-suicide cases on railways, especially after days without sunshine' , research by Professor Kadotani said.