The number of people taking their own lives in Japan rose for the first time in over a decade last year, as the coronavirus pandemic reversed years of progress combating a stubbornly high suicide rate.Japan’s health and welfare ministry said on Friday that 20,919 people died by suicide in 2020 according to preliminary data, up 3.7 per cent from the previous year. That compares with 3,460 deaths from coronavirus in the same period.It marks the first year-on-year rise in suicides in more than a…

This post was originally published on South China Morning Post.