本文僅作為英文學習使用
疫情加劇生活及文化壓力，日本女性自殺率飆升
As Pandemic Took Hold, Suicide Rose Among Japanese Women
「我生活的世界本來就很小，」日本大阪的橋本那津奈在談到她去年與抑鬱症的鬥爭時說。「但我覺得它變得更小了。」 HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
TOKYO — Not long after Japan ramped up its fight against the coronavirus last spring, Nazuna Hashimoto started suffering panic attacks. The gym in Osaka where she worked as a personal trainer suspended operations, and her friends were staying home at the recommendation of the government.東京——去年春天日本加大抗擊新冠病毒力度後不久，橋本那津奈（Nazuna Hashimoto，音）就開始遭受恐慌症的折磨。她在大阪擔任私人教練的健身房暫停營業，她的朋友們都在政府建議下留在家中。Afraid to be alone, she would call her boyfriend of just a few months and ask him to come over. Even then, she was sometimes unable to stop crying. Her depression, which had been diagnosed earlier in the year, spiraled. 「The world I was living in was already small,」 she said. 「But I felt it become smaller.」因為害怕獨處，她會打電話給剛交往幾個月的男友，請他過來。即使在那時，她有時也無法停止哭泣。她去年年初被確診患有抑鬱症，病情不斷惡化。「我生活的世界本來就很小，」她說。「但我覺得它變得更小了。」By July, Ms. Hashimoto could see no way out, and she tried to kill herself. Her boyfriend found her, called an ambulance and saved her life. She is speaking out publicly about her experience now because she wants to remove the stigma associated with talking about mental health in Japan.到了7月，橋本那津奈看不到出路，試圖自殺，男友發現後叫來救護車救了她的命。她現在公開講述自己的經歷，是想要消除在日本談論心理健康的恥辱感。While the pandemic has been difficult for many in Japan, the pressures have been compounded for women. As in many countries, more women have lost their jobs. In Tokyo, the country’s largest metropolis, about one in five women live alone, and the exhortations to stay home and avoid visiting family have exacerbated feelings of isolation. Other women have struggled with the deep disparities in the division of housework and child care during the work-from-home era, or suffered from a rise in domestic violence and sexual assault.雖然這場大流行病給許多日本人帶來了困難，但對女性來說壓力尤為嚴重。和許多國家一樣，更多的女性失去了工作。在日本最大的都市東京，約有五分之一的女性獨自生活，留在家中、避免探望家人的規勸加劇了她們的孤獨感。在這個居家辦公的時代，還有一些女性對家務和育兒分工的嚴重不平等感到苦惱，或者遭遇了更多的家庭暴力和性侵犯。The rising psychological and physical toll of the pandemic has been accompanied by a worrisome spike in suicide among women. In Japan, 6,976 women took their lives last year, nearly 15 percent more than in 2019. It was the first year-over-year increase in more than a decade.伴隨著大流行造成的心理和身體傷害的上升，女性的自殺率也令人擔憂地飆升。在日本，去年有6976名女性自殺，比2019年增加了近15%。這是十多年來首次出現同比增長。Each suicide — and suicide attempt — represents an individual tragedy rooted in a complex constellation of reasons. But the increase among women, which extended across seven straight months last year, has concerned government officials and mental health experts who have worked to reduce what had been among the highest rates of suicide in the world. (While more men than women committed suicide last year, fewer men did so than in 2019. Overall, suicides increased by slightly less than 4 percent.)每一次自殺以及自殺未遂都代表著一個植根於種種複雜原因的個體悲劇。但是，去年女性自殺率連續七個月上升，引起了政府官員和心理健康專家的關注，他們一直在努力降低日本的自殺率，而該國曾是世界上自殺率最高的國家之一。（去年自殺的男性多於女性，但人數相較於2019有所下降。總體自殺人數增幅略低於4%。）The situation has reinforced longstanding challenges for Japan. Talking about mental health issues, or seeking help, is still difficult in a society that emphasizes stoicism.這種情況加劇了日本長期面臨的挑戰。在一個強調隱忍的社會中，談論心理健康問題或者尋求幫助仍然是很困難的。大阪的女性專用地鐵車廂。HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The pandemic has also amplified the stresses in a culture that is grounded in social cohesion and relies on peer pressure to drive compliance with government requests to wear masks and practice good hygiene. Women, who are often designated as primary caregivers, at times fear public humiliation if they somehow fail to uphold these measures or get infected with the coronavirus.同時大流行也加劇了文化壓力，這種文化以社會凝聚力為基礎，依賴同儕壓力，促使人們遵守政府的要求，戴上口罩並保持良好衛生習慣。女性通常被指定為主要照顧者，如果未能堅持這些措施或感染了新冠病毒，她們有時會擔心受到公開羞辱。「Women bear the burden of doing virus prevention,」 said Yuki Nishimura, a director of the Japanese Association of Mental Health Services. 「Women have to look after their families』 health, and they have to look after cleanliness and can get looked down upon if they are not doing it right.」「女性承擔著預防病毒的責任，」日本心理健康服務協會(Japanese Association of Mental Health Services)理事西村由紀(Yuki Nishimura)說。「女性必須照顧家人的健康，她們必須注意衛生，如果做得不好，她們可能會被人看不起。」In one widely publicized account, a 30-something woman who had been recuperating from the coronavirus at home committed suicide. The Japanese media seized on her note expressing anguish over the possibility that she had infected others and caused them trouble, while experts questioned whether shame may have driven her to despair.在一篇廣為報導的報導中，一名30多歲的女性在家中接受新冠病毒治療期間自殺身亡。日本媒體報導了她的遺書，她在其中表示，可能將病毒感染給他人並給他們帶來麻煩，這令她感到痛苦。專家們在討論，是不是羞恥感令她陷入絕望。「Unfortunately the current tendency is to blame the victim,」 said Michiko Ueda, an associate professor of political science at Waseda University in Tokyo who has researched suicide. Dr. Ueda found in surveys last year that 40 percent of respondents worried about social pressure if they contracted the virus.「不幸的是，目前的趨勢是譴責受害者，」東京早稻田大學(Waseda University)研究自殺問題的政治學副教授上田路子(Michiko Ueda)說。上田在去年的調查中發現，40%的受訪者擔心感染病毒會帶來社會壓力。「We don’t basically support you if you are not 『one of us,』」 said Dr. Ueda. 「And if you have mental health issues you are not one of us.」「如果你不是『我們當中的一員』，我們基本上不會支持你，」上田路子說。「如果你有心理健康問題，你就不是我們當中的一員。」Experts have also worried that a succession of Japanese film and television stars who took their own lives last year may have spurred a string of copycat suicides. After Yuko Takeuchi, a popular, award-winning actress, took her life in late September, the number of women committing suicide in the following month jumped by close to 90 percent compared to the previous year.專家們還擔心，去年一連串的日本影視明星自殺事件可能會引發模仿自殺事件。9月下旬，廣受歡迎的獲獎女星竹內結子(Yuko Takeuchi)自殺身亡後一個月內，自殺的女性數量與去年相比猛增近90%。Shortly after Ms. Takeuchi’s death, Nao, 30, started writing a blog to chronicle her lifelong battles with depression and eating disorders. She wrote candidly about her suicide attempt three years earlier.竹內結子去世後不久，30歲的奈緒（Nao，音）開始寫博客，記錄自己一直以來同抑鬱症和飲食失調的鬥爭。她坦率地寫下了自己三年前自殺未遂的經歷。「一個人在家的時候，你會感到與社會隔絕，這種感覺真的很痛苦，」奈緒說，為了保護隱私，她不願透露自己的姓氏。NORIKO HAYASHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Such openness about mental health struggles is still relatively rare in Japan. The celebrity suicides prompted Nao, whose family name has been withheld at her request to protect her privacy, to reflect on how she might have reacted if she had hit her emotional nadir during the pandemic.在日本，這種對心理健康問題的開放態度仍然相對罕見。這些名人自殺事件促使奈緒開始思考，如果她的情緒在疫情期間跌到谷底，她可能會做出怎樣的反應。為保護隱私，她不願公開自己的姓氏。「When you’re at home alone, you feel very isolated from society and that feeling is really painful,」 she said. 「Just imagining if I was in that situation right now, I think the suicide attempt would have happened a lot earlier, and probably I think I would have succeeded.」「一個人在家的時候，你會感到與社會隔絕，這種感覺真的很痛苦，」她說。「想像一下，如果我現在處在那種情況下，我的自殺企圖可能會來得更早，而且我可能會成功。」Writing about her challenges, Nao, who is now married, said she wanted to help others who might be feeling desperate, particularly at a time when so many people are sequestered from friends and colleagues.現在已經結婚的奈緒在寫下自己的困難時說，她想幫助那些可能感到絕望的人，尤其是在這個許多人與朋友和同事隔絕的時候。「Knowing someone went through or is going through something similar as you — and knowing that someone is seeking professional help for that and that it actually helped — would encourage people to do a similar thing,」 said Nao, who said she wanted to help remove the taboos associated with mental illness in Japan.「知道有人遇到過或正在經歷類似的事情，知道有人為此尋求專業幫助，而且確實有幫助，這可以鼓勵人們去做類似的事情，」奈緒說，她希望為消除日本與精神疾病相關的禁忌而出一份力。Nao’s husband could see how much she struggled with the long working hours and brutal office culture at the consulting firm where they first met. Then when she quit, she felt adrift.奈緒與丈夫初次見面是在她工作的那家諮詢公司，他可以看出，漫長的工作時間和殘酷的辦公室文化令她感到痛苦。當她辭職的時候，她覺得自己失去了根基。During the pandemic, women have suffered disproportionate job losses. They made up the bulk of employees within the industries most affected by infection control measures, including restaurants, bars and hotels.在大流行期間，女性的失業率格外之高。在餐館、酒吧和酒店等受防疫措施影響最大的行業，員工大部分都是女性。九月的東京商業區。該市約有五分之一的女性獨自生活。NORIKO HAYASHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
About half of all working women hold part-time or contract jobs, and when business flatlined, companies cut those employees first. In the first nine months of last year, 1.44 million such workers lost their jobs, more than half of them women.大約一半的職業女性從事兼職或合同工，當業務下滑時，公司會首先裁掉這部分僱員。在去年的前九個月，有144萬這樣的工人失去了工作，其中一半以上是女性。Although Nao quit her consulting job voluntarily to seek psychiatric treatment, she remembers feeling wracked with insecurity, no longer able to pay her rent. When she and her then-fiancé decided to accelerate their wedding plans, her father accused her of being selfish.儘管奈緒主動辭去了在諮詢公司的工作，去尋求精神治療，但她無法再支付房租，因為不安全感而備受折磨。當她和未婚夫決定儘快結婚時，她的父親指責她自私。「I just felt like I lost everything,」 she recalled.Those feelings, she said, triggered the depression that led to her suicide attempt. After spending some time in a psychiatric hospital and continuing medication, her self-confidence improved. She found a four-day-a-week job working in the digital operation of a magazine group and is now able to manage the workload.她說，這些感覺引發了抑鬱，導致她試圖自殺。在精神病院住了一段時間並繼續接受藥物治療後，她的自信心有所提高。她在一家雜誌集團的數字運營部門找到了一份每周工作四天的工作，現在已經能夠應付日常工作了。In the past, suicide rates in Japan have spiked during times of economic crisis, including after the burst of the property-based bubble in the 1990s and the global downturn in 2008.過去，日本的自殺率曾在經濟危機期間飆升，包括1990年代房地產泡沫破裂和2008年全球經濟衰退之後。During those periods, it was men who were most affected by job losses and who committed suicide at higher rates. Historically, suicides among men in Japan have outnumbered those among women by a factor of at least two to one.在這些時期，男性受失業影響最大，自殺率也較高。從歷史上看，日本男性的自殺人數至少是女性的兩倍。「They became more desperate after losing their jobs or fortunes,」 said Testuya Matsubayashi, a professor of political science at Osaka University who specializes in social epidemiology.「他們在失去工作或財富後變得更加絕望，」大阪大學(Osaka University)專門研究社會流行病學的政治學教授松林哲也(Testuya Matsubayashi)說。Last year, Dr. Matsubayashi noted that in those Japanese prefectures with the highest unemployment rates, suicides among women under 40 rose the most. More than two-thirds of the women who committed suicide in 2020 were unemployed.去年，松林注意到在失業率最高的幾個縣中，40歲以下女性的自殺率上升最多。2020年自殺的女性超過三分之二處於無業狀態。去年3月，在東京一家餐館等待顧客。約一半有工作的日本婦女從事兼職或合同工工作，在疫情暴發時，這些工作崗位最先遭到撤裁。NORIKO HAYASHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Among women under 40, suicides rose by close to 25 percent, and among adolescents, the number of high school girls taking their lives doubled last year.在40歲以下女性中，自殺上升了將近25%，在青少年中，高中女生的自殺去年增加了一倍。In Ms. Hashimoto’s case, fears of financial dependence contributed to her sense of hopelessness.Even when the gym where she worked as a personal trainer reopened, she did not feel emotionally stable enough to return. She then felt guilty about relying on her boyfriend, emotionally and financially.即便在她擔任私人教練的健身房重新開放後，她也因為情緒不安無法前去工作。在情感和財務上對男友的依賴令她感到愧疚。She had met Nozomu Takeda, 23, who works in the construction industry, at the gym, where he was her training client. They had been dating only three months when she confided that her depression was becoming untenable.現年23歲的男友武田望（Nozomu Takeda，音）在建築行業工作，兩人是在健身房認識的，他是她的客戶。當她向他透露自己已經不堪抑鬱折磨時，兩人才交往三個月。Unable to afford therapy and suffering severe anxiety attacks, she said she identified with others who 「felt very pushed into a corner.」她沒錢接受心理治療，並且出現了嚴重的恐慌發作，她說她能理解那些「感到被逼到角落」的人。When she attempted suicide, all she could think about was freeing Mr. Takeda from the responsibility of taking care of her. 「I wanted to take the burden off him,」 she said.當她嘗試自殺時，她能想到的只是這樣一來武田就可以不用再照顧她。「我想給他免去這個拖累，」她說。橋本希望接受培訓，成為一名專門關注女性的心理治療師。HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Even those who have not lost jobs may have come under extra stress. Before the pandemic, working from home was extremely rare in Japan. Then women suddenly had to worry not only about pleasing their bosses from afar, but also about juggling new safety and hygiene protocols for their children, or protecting elderly parents who were more vulnerable to the virus.即便那些沒有失去工作的人也面臨著更多的壓力。大流行之前，居家工作在日本是極為罕見的。然而一夜之間，女性不但要讓遠處的老闆滿意，還得疲於應對孩子們的新安全和衛生規則，或者要保護年邁的父母，因為他們更容易受到病毒的侵染。The expectations to excel did not change, but their contact with friends and other support networks diminished.對她們的高要求並沒有變，但與朋友和其他支持網絡的接觸卻減少了。「If they can’t get together with other people or share their stresses with other people, then it’s not really surprising」 that they are feeling pressured or depressed, said Kumiko Nemoto, a professor of sociology at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.「如果不能和其他人見面，或與之分享她們的壓力，那麼可以想像」她們會感到壓力或抑鬱，京都外國語大學(Kyoto University of Foreign Studies)社會學教授根本宮美子(Kumiko Nemoto)說。Having survived her own suicide attempt, Ms. Hashimoto now wants to help others learn to talk through their emotional problems and connect them to professionals.她自己也曾經自殺未遂，如今她希望幫助他人，與她們交流情感問題，幫她們介紹專業人士。Mr. Takeda says he appreciates how Ms. Hashimoto speaks openly about her depression. 「She is the type of person who really shares what she needs and what is wrong,」 he said. 「So it was very easy for me to support her because she vocalizes what she needs.」武田望說他讚賞橋本公開談論自己的抑鬱症的勇氣。「她是真的會說出她想要什麼、什麼地方出了問題的那種人，」他說。「因此我要支持她並不難，因為她會說出她的需求。」Together, the couple developed an app, which they are calling Bloste (short for 「blow off steam」), to match therapists with those seeking counseling. Ms. Hashimoto is trying to recruit both seasoned professionals and those at the start of their careers, who are more likely to charge affordable rates for young clients.兩人一起開發了一個應用，他們稱之為Bloste（「宣洩情感」[blow off steam]的縮寫），可以幫那些尋求心理諮詢的人找到諮詢師。除了經驗豐富的專業人士，橋本還試圖招募剛入行的新人，因為這些人更有可能給年輕的客戶開出比較低廉的價格。Eventually, she would like to train as a therapist herself, with a special focus on women.最終，她自己也想受訓成為一名諮詢師，專門面向女性。「The country has mainly focused on moving women up the career ladder and their economic well-being,」 Ms. Hashimoto said. 「But I would like to emphasize women’s mental health.」「這個國家關心的主要是女性在職場的上升空間以及她們的經濟福祉，」橋本說。「但我想側重於女性的精神健康。」在日本，由於強調隱忍的文化，談論心理健康問題通常很困難。HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Motoko Rich是《紐約時報》東京分社社長。她為時報報導包括房地產、經濟、書籍和教育等話題的新聞。
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