AOKIGAHARA, a sprawling 13.5-square-mile (35-square-kilometre) forest at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, is popular with tourists for its trails, caves and dense foliage. It is often called Jukai, or “Sea of Trees.” But the area also has another, less savoury claim to fame: its isolation makes it the most popular place for Japanese people to commit suicide. In 2003, the last year when the government published statistics, more than 100 bodies were found in Jukai. Even though the national suicide rate has fallen by 30% since then, its current mark of 18.5 per 100,000 remains the third-highest in the OECD, a rich-country club.

In Japan, economic suffering seems to contribute to higher rates of suicide. After the collapse of the country’s economic bubble of the 1980s, many Japanese companies underwent painful risutora, or restructuring. As the country’s slowdown worsened during the 1990s, suicides spiked, particularly among middle-aged men who had expected lifetime employment at their firms. In 1998, when the Japanese economy fell into outright recession, suicides jumped 35% to over 32,000. According to the National Police Agency, suicides stemming from economic difficulties accounted for nearly one in five such deaths. A study published in 2007 estimated that every one percentage point increase in the Japanese unemployment rate is associated with an additional 4,800 suicides.

Japan’s government has made reducing suicides a priority. In 2007, authorities set a goal of reducing the country’s suicide rate by 20% over ten years and committed $220m to prevention measures such as better workplace counselling. This month, the government set a new target of reducing the suicide rate by another 30% over the next decade.

Local authorities and non-profit groups are also joining the anti-suicide campaign. Police in Aokigahara have posted signs on trees with messages such as “Your life is a precious gift from your parents.” Across the country, railway officials have installed mirrors and additional lights on station platforms to discourage people from leaping in front of oncoming trains. In 2004, a retired police officer formed an organisation to patrol the rocky Tojinbo cliffs overlooking the Sea of Japan for people who might be considering plunging to their deaths. The group says it has saved over 500 lives. In May, it began using an unmanned drone to monitor the cliffs from the skies.