What’s behind Japan’s family murder-suicide crisis?
Compounding the financial and other pressures driving the crisis is Japan’s deep-rooted stigma surrounding mental healthcare, experts say
By the time her husband returned home from work at 9.30pm, the lives of Enomoto, her two-year-old son Wataru, and five-month-old daughter Saho had ended. The cause: carbon monoxide poisoning.
A suicide note left behind by Enomoto has not been made public, but police have classified the case as a murder-suicide – the term that’s also used when an elderly spouse kills a seriously ill husband or wife and then themselves. It’s a pattern that’s becoming disturbingly familiar in Japan, where societal pressures, financial strain, and mental health stigma are pushing more families to the brink.
New research from the Mainichi newspaper reveals the unsettling scale of these tragedies. Between 2018 and 2022, at least 254 cases of family murder-suicides were reported in Japan, claiming 486 lives. In the majority of cases – 160, to be exact – a parent killed their child before ending their own life. Other cases involved couples, siblings, or elderly family members.
And yet, these numbers likely only scratch the surface. The Mainichi’s study relied on media reports, meaning countless other tragedies may have gone unreported. Whether these incidents are rising or falling remains unclear, but experts agree on one thing: the numbers are alarmingly high.
Fujiko Yamada, founder of the Child Maltreatment Centre in Kanagawa prefecture, points to three primary drivers behind family murder-suicides: financial hardship, domestic abuse, and untreated mental health issues.
