This study compares the social backgrounds of suicide in Japan and the United States, revealing the intersections of economic insecurity, cultural pressure, and individual mental health. Drawing on Ulrich Beck’s theory of the “risk society” and Anthony Giddens’s concept of “late modernity,” it analyzes the structural and cultural factors shaping suicide in both nations. In particular, the study develops a triadic framework of work, worth, and wellbeing to explain why identical suicide rates conceal divergent underlying causes. Through this comparative analysis, it explores how instability and identity fragility in late modern societies intertwine with the search for meaning in life, sometimes culminating in suicide. By highlighting both the commonalities and differences between Japan and the United States, the paper situates suicide as a structural and cultural problem of contemporary society and identifies key implications for policy.
Birchley et al. (Tue,) studied this question.