Thanks for your feedback! Yes, I understand that the popular media is spreading the diamond engagement-ring craze all over the world now. I think it's kinda too bad. If people really have that much to spend then great, go for it ... but I don't like the social pressure put on people who are already struggling to make ends meet to "prove their love" through diamonds. There's a lot I appreciate about Dutch culture, especially in terms of tolerance.
As for the Japanese suicide rates, I do remember that they have been pretty high in the past. You inspired me to do a little more digging, so I researched the most-recent suicide rates I could find for both the USA and Japan. This website has a good collection of data showing that Japan's suicides have decreased steadily every year since 2003. However, it is actually true that more Japanese commit suicide than Americans, even though this gap is closing because American suicides have increased. The latest charts I found say that about 19.5 people out of every 100,000 take their own lives in Japan, compared to 13 people out of every 100,000 in the USA. Last year in 2016, Japan's suicide rate dropped down again to about 17.3 people per 100,000. Other countries like Lithuania, South Korea and Russia have much higher suicide rates than Japan though.
One thought I had about the low depression rates and higher suicide rates is that maybe it's kind of a stigma in Japanese culture to admit you're depressed. I don't know who they interviewed for their depression study, and maybe these people didn't want to admit they had depression. I know that Americans are very open about depression, and it's fairly socially acceptable to a lot of people I grew up with. Are there any Japanese people who want to weigh in on this? Correct me if I'm wrong.
The main point I wanted to highlight is that while the Japanese have a very highly developed nation, they haven't exploded their pharmaceutical industry like America has. I would like to see more cultures looking to alternative, holistic ways to treat their problems rather than resorting to suicide or living on drugs.
Awesome to see you actually went into depth on my comment! So yes you just might be right about the stigma on admitting you have a depression. It would be lovely to get some Japanese perspective on this. I do have to mention again I am no expert on this but have recently traveled to Japan and tried to educate myself as much as possible on their culture and traditions.
Again, I was just speculating with these figures, would be cool though if there were some truth to it.