The present study was conducted to investigate the actual status of bereavement experience in the general population of Japan. Data were collected via questionnaires from a nationally representative sample of Japanese aged 12 years and older from the National Survey of Trends of Health and Welfare by the Department of Health and Welfare of Japan in 2000. The number of valid questionnaires was 32,022 (15,217 male, 16,597 female, and 208 unidentified). Among them, 1082 people (410 males and 672 females) answered that they had experienced the death of a person close to them within the last month. This means that approximately 5% of the general population had experienced bereavement within the month prior to the survey. The bereavement experience caused modest but substantial elevation in depressive symptoms. The middle-aged population most commonly experienced bereavement, and women were more likely to be affected seriously by bereavement. These results suggested that appropriate mental health strategies for bereaved people are important from a public mental health point of view.
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