Japan has long been associated with the practice of suicide – however, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the number of Japanese people who kill themselves hit a nine-year low last year., according to police data.

In 2010, the number of suicides dropped by 3.5 percent to 31.960 – the thirteenth year in a row that the figure topped 30,000.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the public’s attention to this phenomenon and said he is determined to put an end self-killing.

Still, according to data from WHO, Japan has the world’s eighth suicide rate – indeed, the top ten countries in this grim list is dominated by former Soviet republics.

In every single country that WHO surveyed, the suicide rate for men is far higher than that of men.

Here are the ten countries with the highest suicide rates (per 100,000 people):