Seven Wonders of Japan #7.A paradox of Japan This is the last wonder of Seven Wonders of Japan. This fact I share with you is a paradox or a contradiction that you find in Japan: namely between the long life expectancy and the high suicide rate. Some of the readers may already know that the Japanese women enjoy the highest life expectancy in the world (photo 1). According to the World Health Organization, WHO (who.int/en/) the Japanese women expect to live till 87 years old. The Japanese men (as they work so hard?) on the other hand, cannot boast the first place. It is only at the 8th place with the life expectancy of 80 years old. However, the life expectancy of the number one in the list, Iceland is 81. So you can say that the Japanese men can expect to live pretty long too. So, one can say that the Japanese citizen overall are enjoying the very high life expectancy in the world. Here is the whole report by the World Health Organization on World Health Statistics 2014: who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/world-health-statistics-2014/en/ We also have the government provides the health care program for the citizens that is free. The senior citizens get the most benefit, of course. There is a small joke in Japan that a hospital is a social club of the aged. They gather regardless of their health condition so that they can talk to their friends and the neighbors (photo 2). Unlike in many other countries without a public health care (US is one of them), the Japanese seniors do not worry about most of the hospital or the clinic charges even if they get sick or have a surgery. I am also aware that there are many other countries that have the excellent public health care such as Canada, UK and Brazil so I am not saying that the public health care is a unique service in Japan. I am just listing this to show the benefits that the Japanese citizens get. Japan also enjoys its wealth as she is the second highest with GDP (Gross Domestic Product) next to the US. The Japanese newspaper, Japan Times reported that an average Japanese family has, believe it or not, ¥16.64 0,000 (approximately $83,200) in savings in 2012. According to the Statista (statista) the unemployment rate of Japan in 2014 is estimated to be 3.7%. Japan is not the very top but is one of the countries that are enjoying the low unemployment disaster (US is one of them). So, these figures seem to show that most of the Japanese people are enjoying the economical wealthiness. However, according to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD ( oecd.org/), out of 30 member countries Japan lists as the fourth highest poverty rate (15%) after Mexico (18.5%), Turkey (17.5%) and the USA (17%). The lowest poverty rate was in Denmark with only 5%. The same organization states that the trend of the poverty rate in Japan is continuing to get worse lately. So, there seems to be some problem with the Japanese society here. I wish to bring another statistics (by the Japanese government) to show the ironic fact about Japan. The statistics show that the suicide in Japan was 27,858 persons which means nearly 80 people are taking their lives every day. The suicide rate was recorded at 21.8 per 100,000 in 2012. This rate was the 13th highest in the world that year. Many readers know Mt. Fuji and it is viewed as the most beautiful mountain in Japan. Did you know that the police finds about 100 suicide bodies each year in the woods of Mt. Fuji? The government report also indicated that more than 300,000 Japanese citizens committed suicide during the ten year span between 2000 and 2010. This figure equals to the total population of Iceland! Washington Post published the OECD statistics of the suicide rate (2005, a bit old) and Japan ranked the third worst after Korea and Hungary in the list of 26 member countries. Here is the full list: washingtonpost/wp-srv/world/suiciderate.html By looking at the suicide rate, it is obvious many Japanese are not happy or lose their desire to live. According to the statistics, 70% of the suicide are committed by the citizens of 40 years and older. At the same time, the suicide is listed as the highest cause of death for the youths in Japan. These facts indicate that The unhappy people are almost every where. I am presenting this huge gap between the safe and clean society, the long life expectancy with the economical wealthiness and the high suicide rate. I call this the 7th wonder of Japan. Japan did a lot of good things and they have established a wonderful and an exemplary society. But at the same time, Japan must have done or been doing something wrong that is making many of the citizens unhappy. I will not put my analysis or the theory about this gap or the Japan paradox. I want to ask the readers if you can tell what are or were the wrong things Japan as a society does or did wrong to make the people unhappy. Are the Japanese in general happy or unhappy? This question would be a homework for those who either studied about Japan or live in Japan. What do you think?
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:03:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015