Suicide Attempts of Japanese Youth and Durkheim’s Concept of Anomie: An Interpretation

The rapid increase in Japan suicide rates after World War II - from less than 20 per 100,000 population before, and less than 15 during the war, to 25.3 in 1955 - suggests that the high suicide rates in 1955 may be attributed, at least partly, to anomie after the war. The effect of anomie seems to have been especially great on Japanese youth, whose suicide rates nearly doubled from those of pre-war periods for both sexes (Table 1). The purpose of this paper is (1) to ascertain the essential components of Durkheim's concept of anomie; (2) to apply them to the explanation of high suicide rates of Japanese youth; and (3) to apply them to suicide attempts by Japanese youth. Although Powell and Gibbs and Martin maintain that Durkheim's concepts are inapplicable to individual cases, we try to find components of the concepts, which may be applicable to individual cases. After all, as Durkheim recognized by referring to the suicidal individual's psychological conditions, the components of the