Japan suicides near record high in 2007

More than 33,000 people took their lives in Japan last year, topping 30,000 for the 10th consecutive year despite a government campaign to reduce what is one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

A report issued yesterday by the National Police Agency showed that 33,093 people killed themselves in Japan in 2007 - the second-largest number on record after 34,427 in 2003 - mostly because of debt, family problems, depression and other health issues.

There was also a leap in the number of suicides involving toxic hydrogen sulphide gas made from household detergents, a previously obscure method that is spreading rapidly as Internet messages tell victims how to produce the poison at home.