A record 527 children attending elementary, junior high and senior high schools in Japan died by suicide last year, up 14 from 2023 and topping the previous high of 514 in 2022, preliminary government data showed Wednesday. Senior high school students accounted for 349 of the total, up 2 from…
the heck is causing this? highly competitive society? bullying running free on japanese schools? lack of support by school personnel and overworked parents?
Climate change + no future prospects under capitalism + lack of support structure due to overworked parents + crushing poverty in many cases. Japan has a lot of homeless and near homeless children.
It's easy to blame social media but you don't get over 500 suicides from children with good future prospects, good living standards, quality time with your family and friends and reasonable school demands.
It's obvious that the current mental health crisis is mostly on neoliberalism. The best predictors of mental health are good living standards, exercise and socialising, all of which are more and more behind paywalls. There are aggravating factors and social media is certainly one of them, but it can't be the core of the issue.