Dear Editor,
Over a year has passed since COVID-19 broke out in Japan and elsewhere around the world, and people continue to contract this disease and die. According to reports from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the country of Japan has entered a major economic slump (San-in Chuo Shimbun, 2021; Yomiuri Shimbun, 2021). Compared to 2019, 2020 saw (1) a substantial decline in the ratio of job openings to job applicants, (2) a decrease in the number of new job openings, (3) increases in both the total unemployment rate and the number of unemployed, (4) a decrease in the number of employed, (5) a decrease in the number of temporary or contract workers, (6) an increase in the number of employees on a leave of absence, and (7) a decrease in the percentage of college students receiving tentative job offers (San-in Chuo Shimbun, 2021; Yomiuri Shimbun, 2021). The sharp decline in the ratio of job openings to job applicants (1) was the third such decrease in Japan’s history. The decrease in the number of new job openings (2) reflects an extremely dire situation, i.e., a decrease of 210,000 annually. The increases in the total unemployment rate and the number of unemployed (3) are the first such increases in 11 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2009. The number of employed individuals (4) decreased for the first time in 8 years. The number of temporary or contract workers (5) decreased for the first time since 2014, when the number was comparable. The number of employees on a leave of absence (6) was the largest number ever. The percentage of college students receiving tentative job offers (7) also declined substantially.
Information provided by the media must be carefully and accurately understood. Instead of obtaining accurate information by studying facts (1)－(7) statistically, trends in the data should be discerned. A study has reported that unemployment is associated with poor mental and general health (Herber et al., 2019). Follow-up by specialized agencies in clinical disciplines and medical treatment of symptoms to address the rudimentary causes of those symptoms indicate the need for efforts to improve mental health impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That aspect is also part of the association between COVID-19 and mental health as described by Prof. Tandon (Tandon, 2021a). Prof. Tandon cited the challenges of “balancing the twin imperatives of timeliness (expedited reviews) and scientific rigor (managing contributions with new and less certain information)” (Tandon, 2020a,b), and these two competing requirements reflect the difficulty of overseeing a medical journal during a health crisis. A study reported on unemployment and suicide in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Kawohl and Nordt, 2020). In Japan, detailed data on suicides will be published by the National Police Agency next March. Until then, the only figures available are total suicides and suicides by men and by women, which are reported monthly and which are not broken down by age group, and total suicides by prefecture (not broken down by sex or age group). Under such circumstances, suggestions cannot be readily offered until definitive conclusions about the data have been reached, as mentioned by Prof. Tandon (Tandon, 2021b), and the twin imperatives of timeliness and scientific rigor must be balanced (Tandon, 2020a,b).
What is most important is that people around the world do not die from the direct or indirect effects of COVID-19 or become ill. To that end, combined approaches to and efforts in psychiatry and public health are needed, and all relevant areas should work together as necessary.
Funding
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Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Acknowledgments
None.
References
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