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Monthly Suicide Rates During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Japan, Gerardo Ruiz Sánchez

Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses 2018–2020 prefecture–month–year, gender–month–year, and age group–month–year level data on suicide rates in Japan to document how suicide rates are evolving during the COVID-19 pandemic. I use a monthly event study design to study changes in suicide rates surrounding Japan's COVID-19 state of emergency and to trace out monthly changes in suicide rates during the first 11 months of 2020 relative to 2018–2019. I find that monthly suicide rates during the pandemic started increasing meaningfully in June–July 2020. I find that women experienced greater increases in suicide rates than men, relative to their 2018–2019 average suicide rate, and …