世論 What Japan Thinks

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Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).

Demographics

3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.

Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.

Although Q5 indicates the majority of people would seek professional help for depression, I suspect there is quite a gap between what people say here and what they actually would do.

Research results

Next, the respondents were shown a list of signs of clinical depression and asked to read it closely, then asked the following questions.

Q4: Did you know that these sorts of symptoms are signs of clinical depression? (Sample size=1,728)

Knew them well	39.5%
Knew a little about them	44.6%
Didn’t know about them	15.9%

Q5: If you noticed these signs of clinical depression in yourself, would you visit a professional psychologist? (Sample size=1,728)

Think so	56.5%
Don’t think so	34.8%
Don’t know	8.7%

Q6: If you noticed these signs of clinical depression in other family members, would you recommend that they visit a professional psychologist? (Sample size=1,728)

Would recommend	89.2%
Would not recommend	6.3%
Don’t know	4.5%

Q7: If you yourself had clinical depression, what sort of medical services would make it easier for you to get appropriate treatment? (Sample size=1,728, up to two answers)

If it was possible to get treatment for mild depression from other doctors	54.7%
If there were professional counsellors training, if there were more people close at hand to talk with	54.2%
If there was treatment other than a hospital psychology deparment	40.4%
If there was a psychology department in a nearby hospital	19.6%
Other	0.8%
Don’t know	3.3%

Perhaps to explain the top answer regarding seeing other doctors for depression, what the answer is getting at is that perhaps people may be too embarrassed to visit a mental health clinic so instead would prefer to discuss with a doctor they were perhaps familiar with at ordinary internal medicine clinics for help.

Q8: Did you know that at health centres there are “building a healthy heart” desks? (Sample size=1,728)

Yes	33.6%
No	66.4%

Q9: Did you know that at Mental Health Centres there are “building a healthy heart” desks? (Sample size=)

Yes	20.3%
Know about Mental Health Centres, but didn’t know there were “building a healthy heart” desks	10.5%
Didn’t know there were Mental Health Centres	69.2%

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]