Suicide in Japan: Part Three
- An Introduction to "Muri-shinju" or Murder-suicide

J. Sean Curtin (Fellow, GLOCOM)

A full list of articles in this series can be found here.

While all forms of suicide are a tragedy, from a research perspective "muri-shinju" or murder-suicide is perhaps the most distressing type to study. I have personally found studying this particular type of suicide extremely disturbing. Before examining the subject more closely, it is important to define exactly what is meant by the Japanese term "muri-shinju" (murder-suicide). "Muri-shinju" is when a family member, usually a mother or father, murders their child, children or other family member and then commits suicide. There are also some cases when both parents are involved in the murder. The Japanese press also frequently uses the term "ikka-shinju" to describe this kind of horrific occurrence (see note).*

While this is thankfully a relatively rare form of suicide in Japan, its rate of incidence is still much higher than in European Union countries and North America. In the Japanese local and national press you can usually find at least one or two cases of "muri-shinju" reported every single day. Even in the English language press there are about two cases reported each week.

From reports in the media, it seems that financial worries are the major motive behind many of these murder-suicides. Desperate parents in a suicidal state seem to reason that it is somehow better that their children die with them than face what they believe would be the hardships of Japan's undeveloped welfare system. However, it is important to stress that the vast majority of suicidal parents just kill themselves and it is only in a small minority of cases that the suicidal parent tries to take the life of their offspring.

In a later article in this series on suicide in Japan, the psychology behind murder-suicide will be examined more in depth. An excellent reference book with an illuminating section on the subject is Roger Goodman's "Children of the Japanese State."

It is difficult to get any hard statistics on this particular form of suicide and press accounts provide virtually the only source of information on the phenomenon. While there are reports of cases of murder-suicide involving either parent, the majority of incidents documented in the Japanese press involve mothers.

According to details given in the media, quite a lot of these women are divorcees, who appear to be experiencing extreme economic hardship. In recent years, the welfare budgets for lone-mother families (divorced, separated, widowed or unmarried mothers living with children) have been drastically reduced while the general economic situation has deteriorated over the same period. If the press accounts paint a fairly accurate picture of the situation, during this same period, the number of murder-suicides involving divorced or separated mothers has steadily risen.

According to the 2002 Citizen's Basic Living Survey on Japanese households, lone-mother families (divorced, separated, widowed or unmarried mothers living with children) are the poorest households in the country. According to the same survey, 81.6％ of Japanese lone-mothers say they are experiencing hardship. This is despite the fact that most of the mothers are in employment. About 87% of Japanese lone-mothers work, which is the highest employment rate for lone-mothers amongst OECD countries.

Regrettably, the only major policy measure the government adopted, during a period when the rate of lone-mother murder-suicides increased, was to slash the welfare budget for impoverished lone-mother families. Cutting the budget for Japan's poorest children has been a top priority for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. In fact, unlike most of his other reforms, Koizumi succeeded in pushing this one through almost a year ahead of schedule. He had originally planned to reduce benefits for poor children in lone-mother households in April 2003, but moved this date forward to June 2002.

While welfare cuts for Japan's poorest families cannot be directly blamed for an increase in suicide for economic reasons, what can be said is that since the austerity measures were introduced, the number of lone-mother murder-suicides reported in the press has noticeably increased. The government urgently needs to adopt an effective policy aimed at trying to minimize this most disturbing form of suicide.

* Note

In its strict traditional meaning, the term "ikka-shinju" does not mean the same thing as "muri-shinju". While "ikka-shinju" does mean the suicide of an entire family, what it implies is that they all chose to commit suicide. When the lives of young children are taken by their parents, there is absolutely no sense of choice in the matter. Hence "muri-shinju" is a better term as "muri" in this instance means by force/against one's will.

Book Reference

Related Series

Poor Families in Today's Japan

Family Trends in 2003

The Declining Birthrate in Japan