The annual number suicide deaths in Japan is notoriously high among developed countries even surpassing the number of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Experts deem that government efforts to reduce suicide by at least 20% by 2016 are doomed to fail with the present measures. A considerable number of suicides are motivated to obtain death benefit according to police statistics while the life insurance industry does not disclose the causes of death of their benefit payment. Such financially motivated suicides could be prevented by excluding suicide from death benefit and hence worthwhile consideration as yet another measure of suicide prevention.
To develop insurance policies excluding suicide, the industry needs a different version of life tables excluding suicide for actuarial purposes. The author developed a life table excluding suicide using 2009 mortality statistics and demonstrated that the premium for beneficiaries in their 20s could be reduced by as much as half giving them a competitive edge over existing policies including suicide as eligible benefits after certain waiting periods. Exclusion of suicide from life insurance policies could be an effective measure for suicide prevention.