A new Japanese study has found suicide rates among middle-aged male office workers often peak on Monday mornings.

The study, conducted by researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo and Osaka University, claims to be the first of its kind to explore suicide rates based on timings in Japan.

The country has long struggled with one of the world's highest suicide rates and a notorious culture of overworking.

The research, which explored 870,000 suicides between 1974 and 2014, found that the day and time that people chose to take their lives fluctuated depending on gender, age and the economic climate.

The study revealed that the number of men aged between 40 and 65 who committed suicide at the start of the week was at times 1.55 times higher than rates on Saturdays.

Researchers also discovered that the number of middle aged men committing suicide on a Monday morning peaked when the economy was weak, with rates dropping during more stable economic periods.

Meanwhile, the majority of men took their own lives before leaving for work in the morning – rather than during their commute – with hanging and gas poisoning emerging as the most common causes of death.

“Because Monday is the first day of the work week for most people, especially established full-time workers, such a pattern suggests that some of their suicides might have been in part associated with work or a reluctance to go to work,” Michiko Ueda, a suicide expert and associate professor at Waseda University who was involved in the research, told The Telegraph.