Girl, 17, jumps to her death from shopping centre, killing woman below

A 17-year-old girl jumped to her death from a shopping centre and killed another woman as she landed on the pedestrian below.

The teenage high school student jumped from a building in a crowded shopping district in the Japanese city of Yokohama, hitting a 32-year-old woman who was out with her friends on Saturday evening.

Both women were taken to hospital, where the girl died an hour later and the other woman died soon after.

Though it is not clear why the girl committed suicide, more people under the age of 18 kill themselves in Japan on 1 September more than any other day, just ahead of the new school term, the BBC report.

Last year, 513 children were reported to have taken their own lives in Japan, with ‘school problems’ being cited as the most common factor.

A look at the residential district of Nishi-ku in Yokohama city, Japan (stock image) 

According to police, the girl was said to have jumped from the 12th floor deck of NEWoMan Yokohama, a shopping center directly connected to JR Yokohama Station, just before 6pm, Japan Today reports. 

Police said the teenage girl lived in Kimitsu City, Chiba Prefecture, and the woman was a company employee who lived in Midori Ward, Yokohama.

It is also said that the scene was crowded with many shoppers at the time.

In July, a global suicide report found that Japan had the fourth highest rate with 15.4 deaths per 100,000, followed by Hungary, at 14.8 deaths per 100,000.

Researchers said: ‘South Korea recorded the highest rate of deaths from suicide at 24.1 per 100,000 people, followed by Lithuania, Slovenia, Japan, and Hungary.’ 

South Korea and Japan have particularly high-pressure educational and work environments as well as social stigma around mental health that may be driving up suicide rates there.

In 2020 it was also reported that Japan had a female suicide crisis, after more people committed suicide in a month than those who died from Covid-19 over the entire year.