Relationships between expenditure of regional governments and suicide mortalities caused by six major motives in Japan

Abstract

Suicide mortality in Japan reduced in the period of 2009–2018. A number of studies identified the impact of financial governmental support for social welfare systems on suicide mortality; however, the detailed effects of specific regional policies, designed according to regional cultural, economic, education and welfare situations, on suicide mortality remain to be clarified. Therefore, the present study analyses the associations between the regional governmental expenditure of six major divisions, “public health”, “public works”, “police”, “ambulance/fire services”, “welfare” and “education”, and suicide mortalities caused by six major suicidal motives, related to “family”, “health”, “economy”, “employment”, “romance” and “school”, across the 47 prefectures in Japan during the period of 2009–2018, using fixed-effect analysis of hierarchal linear regression with robust standard error. The expenditure of “public works” displayed a positive relationship with suicide mortality of females caused by family-related motives but was not related to other suicide mortalities, whereas the expenditures in “public health”, “police”, “ambulance/fire services”, “welfare” and “education” contributed to a reduction in suicide mortality, at least in some statistical indicators. The expenditures of both “ambulance/fire” and “education” were predominantly effective among the six major divisions of regional governmental expenditure in reducing suicide mortalities. In the education subdivisions, the expenditure of “kindergarten” was related to a reduction in suicide mortalities caused by a wide spectrum of motives. The amount of expenditure of welfare indicated the limited possibility of facilitating a reduction in suicide mortalities caused by only motives associated with economy or employment. However, in the welfare subdivisions, the expenditure of “child welfare” and “social welfare” was effective in reducing suicide mortalities, but the expenditure of “elderly welfare” was unexpectedly related to an increase in suicide mortalities. These results suggest that most Japanese people are struggling to bring up children even in the situation of an increasing elderly population with a decreasing birth rate. Therefore, it is important to enhance the investment welfare policy for the future to improve the childcare environment. Although the issue of an increasing elderly population and a decreasing birth rate in Japan has not yet improved, the obtained results suggest that evidence-based welfare expenditure redistributions of prefectures and municipalities could improve Japanese society and welfare systems.