"We didn't even have a lockdown, and the impact of Covid is very minimal compared to other countries ... but still we see this big increase in the number of suicides," said Michiko Ueda, an associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, and an expert on suicides.
> Women make up a larger percentage of part-time workers in the hotel, food service and retail industries -- where layoffs have been deep.
> In a global study of more than 10,000 people, conducted by non-profit international aid organization CARE, 27% of women reported increased challenges with mental health during the pandemic, compared to 10% of men.
> Compounding those worries about income, women have been dealing with skyrocketing unpaid care burdens, according to the study.
This is not an article in an academic journal and we don't know how scientifically valid the CARE survey was - which btw wasn't specifically about Japan. It would almost certainly cover countries that were unable to effectively subsidise their shutdowns. Having said that, it does intuitively make sense that the economic down turn would place additional stress on those most affected by it.
The lockdown, however, was not the source of the economic down turn, but rather the virus roaming about killing people was the cause. An effective lockdown, supported by government subsidies and contact tracing, has been proven to be beneficial to the economy. After the shutdown, consumers can roam about in the comfort of knowing that they have almost zero chance of contracting the virus. Australia and New Zealand are now so confident in their success that they can fill entire stadiums with people as though a vaccine had already arrived.
Still though, as noted by the paper, there hasn't been a shutdown in Japan:
> Without introducing lockdown measures or strict domestic movement restrictions during the state of emergency, authorities requested non-essential businesses to close or opt to work remotely. Stores and restaurants were asked to operate for reduced hours. The state of emergency was lifted on May 25, 2020.
Yes economic down turns can increase the suicide rate shock, but shutdowns are obviously not a factor for Japan as they haven't imposed nearly as onerous containment measures as other countries. The main reason for Japan's current plight is that its economy is heavily susceptible to external economic shocks such as decreased global consumption due to an ongoing pandemic.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/asia/japan-suicide-women-...