Publication Date

2002

Abstract

There were 342 cases of "female same-sex double (or 'love') suicide" reported in the Japanese daily press between 1925 and 1935 (Komine 1985, 175). Assuming unreported and individual cases, the actual sum of lesbian suicides during this period was probably much higher than twice this number. Still, only these recorded lesbian double suicides constituted about thirty-one percent of all suicides in Japan during this time period (Komine 1985, 174-5). The disproportionately high rate of suicide among lesbians in interwar Japan is an indication of widespread exclusion of lesbians from the major social and economic trends during this time.

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