'MINISTER OF LONELINESS'
after seeing suicide rates in the country increase for the first time in 11 years
insider.com | Feb 23, 2021
...Japan has appointed a "Minister of Loneliness" to take try and reduce loneliness and social isolation among its residents as the country deals with rising suicide rates...Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto, who is already a minister in charge of dealing with Japan's declining birthrate and promoting regional revitalization, to oversee government policies to deal with loneliness and isolation, earlier this month.
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As suicides rise amid the pandemic, Japan takes steps to tackle loneliness
The Japan Times | Feb 21, 2021
Japan is beefing up measures against loneliness, taking a first major step toward comprehensively tackling a pervasive problem in the nation that has again been thrust into the spotlight due to the pandemic.
Such is the urgency of the issue that the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga added a minister of loneliness to his Cabinet earlier this month, following the example of the U.K, which in 2018 became the first country to create a similar role.
Suga tapped minister Tetsushi Sakamoto, who is simultaneously in charge of combating the nation’s falling birth rate and revitalizing regional economies, for the new portfolio.
With isolation tied to an array of social woes such as suicide, poverty and hikikomori (social recluses), the Cabinet Office also established a task force Friday that seeks to address the problem of loneliness across various ministries, including by investigating its impact.
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