ABSTRACT
Women everywhere face the conflict between the ascribed role in the family and the achieved role in society. Among nations with the highest suicide rates for women from 1967 to 1971, Japan’s rate fluctuated from fourth to sixth place. For women between sixty-five and seventy-four years of age, Japan records the second highest suicide rate after Hungary in the same period. The suicide patterns for women in Japan from 1947 to 1973 indicate very definite trends in each age group. These figures and fluctuations become mute yet forceful indicators of the presence of particular stresses, conflicts or crises commonly experienced by women. In 1973, suicide remained the highest cause of death for women aged twenty to twenty-nine. This gives rise to a number of questions. One significant pattern is that women from sixty-five and over have maintained the highest suicide level from 1947 to the present.
