Hence, in most of the religious teachings, taking one's own life is defined as something sinful, an act that dares to touch the domain most sacred and divine. As followers of one or another religion, most of the people around the world tend to be satisfied with the interpretation and are content with the life they had been given, no matter whatever sorrow and hardship it might bring to them.

As a result, though taking one's own life is not a total absurdity in any given society, the rate of people committing suicide has never been alarming in many countries around the world. This is true even today, though in some countries the rate of suicide is continuously showing an upward trend. Japan is one of those countries falling into the later group, where 32,552 people killed themselves in 2005.

It might also sound puzzling to many in developing countries what exactly prompts people to take their own lives. In regions where mere survival is what is at stake -- hunger, poverty, deprivation and exploitation might look like a trap, inclining people to end their own sufferings of survival. Yet, we do not hear much about suicides in those countries. On the contrary, the problem is much more predominant in places where more or less a decent living has long been ensured to most of the people. Japan again is among that group of countries along with most of the Scandinavia where the matter looks much more puzzling.

The National Police Agency of Japan issued the 2005 suicide figure in early June that shows an increase by 227 from a year ago. The agency started compiling such statistics in 1978 and for the eighth consecutive year now the figure exceeds the 30,000-level. The 1995 figure, showing the total number of suicide in the country at 32,552, otherwise implies that on an average one person is killing himself (or herself) in the country every 16 minutes. This is no doubt an alarming trend that prompted the government to find ways to prevent people from taking their own lives.

The police agency report also gives reasons for the suicides based on wills, notes, or information provided by the family members and friends. Nearly half of the suicides last year were due to health problems, followed by debt and other financial difficulties. Almost 8,000 people committed suicide in Japan last year due to financial problems.

The increasing rate of money-related suicide in Japan is a relatively new phenomenon. According to the police agency, until 1995 the figure of money-related suicides ranged between 1,000 and 3,000. As Japan's gross domestic product started to shrink due to continued economic slump, the figure doubled towards the end of 1990s and remained above 6,000 marks for eight consecutive years.

Among those who are driven to resort to the extremity are mainly those who lost jobs or are forced to declare bankruptcy. Though both, the jobless rate and figures for bankruptcy are showing signs of improvement in recent years, the mood is yet to get its due reflection in the suicide rate. The yearly suicide rate figure in this category has broken the level of 7,000 four year ago and is remaining more or less static since then.

The third largest group of people taking their own lives consists of those having family problems. The figure for 2005 in this group was 3,019. Broken hearts too had their due share in suicide as more than 800 people took their lives last year over problematic relationship with the opposite sex.

Males accounted for more than 70 percent of the suicides in 2005, showing again that the country's economic difficulties are continuing to claim victims. The government of Japan is well aware that although there are a variety of factors behind the relatively high suicide rate, a coordinated effort on the part of the government is essential to tackle the problem. The government in fact had been working since the last few years and eventually submitted a bill to the Diet that called for closer cooperation among central and local governments, companies and non-governmental organizations, to work together in preventing the trend.

The Diet recently had passed the bill that also calls for research into the causes of suicide, efforts to ensure mental stability among workers and support for those who have attempted suicide. Under the new law, company owners are now required to take measures to maintain the mental health of their employees. The law also paved the way for the formation of a governmental anti-suicide task force that would report to the Diet every year on the enforcement of measures in preventing suicide.

But governmental measures alone would not be sufficient in discouraging people from taking their own lives unless the country's economic health is fixed. The mere fact that more than 8,000 people took their own lives in 2005 due to financial difficulties like debt and declared bankruptcy leaves ample of opportunities for looking at the issue from a broader perspective. The problem has no magic cure and only a successful national campaign based on an effective strategy will probably be able to cut the unusually high rate of suicide to a certain extent.

The high suicide rate in Japan is also related to the country's social and cultural norms. Unlike in Christianity and Islam, suicide in Confucius-influenced Buddhist and Shinto tradition of Japan has never been considered a sinful act. On the contrary, suicide in the form of Seppuku for long had been glorified in Japan as an act of extreme courage and worthy masculine behaviour. As a result, the social and religious taboo that act as a preventive measure against suicide in many other societies has always been absent in Japan.

Moreover, the sense of belonging to a collective entity might also have something to do with the suicide, particularly at a time of relatively high jobless rate when those finding themselves fired can easily feel falling out of the community network and losing the identity so much associated with the collective sense of belonging.

The Japanese society had always been an extremely cruel place for the misfits and it takes time to change that mentality rooted in age-old values. So, the new law is unlikely to change the situation drastically unless these issues are also taken into account in the process of implementing effective preventive measures.