Youth suicide rate hits record high in Japan

More than 57 people committed suicide in Japan every day in 2018. At least one of them was aged 19 or under, according to data from the nation's health ministry.

A total of 20,840 people that killed themselves in 2018 represented a decline of 481 from the previous year, and a decline in suicides for the ninth straight year, according to a new white paper on suicide prevention from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Despite a falling trend for all the other age groups, the number of people under 20 who committed suicide in 2018 increased by 32 to 599, making it the highest suicide rate for minors in Japan since accounting began in 1978.