This iconic photo speaks volumes and still resonates today.

Rates of depression on the rise during the current financial recession.

More Americans commit suicide each year than die in motor vehicle accidents. Every year, more than 500,000 people attempt to take their own lives in the US and 30,000 of those attempts are successful. Of course correlation and causation aren’t the same thing, but there seems to be strong evidence that those who are being most hurt in the current economic crisis are killing themselves in ever greater numbers.

There is free help and counseling for those struggling with depression.

Japanese people no longer the most long lived, according to an extensive report on Japan’s health in the Lancet.

Smoking, growing obesity and a rising suicide rate are among some of the factors contributing to Japan’s declining health rating.

The aging population is ill prepared to deal with geriatric sickness.

With a median age of 40 years and a declining birth rate the health care system is inadequately funded to take care of all of the needs of it’s citizens.

In a country where people feel that they are responsible for their own health to benefit the society the answers to Japan’s problem may lie in it’s cultural values.