Background With serious situation of having over 300 000 cases (around 24 per 100 000 people) of suicide yearly, the Japanese national government established the Basic Act on Suicide Prevention in 2006. Accordingly, local governments have developed policies and programmes to solve the problem. However, the serious situations haven't been improved. Meanwhile, the concept of Safe Community (SC) is drawing attention as another possible. Currently, all communities which have introduced the SC model set up suicide prevention as one of their priorities.

Objective Considering that those communities are expecting influence of SC model on suicide prevention, this study examines impact of SC programmes on situations surrounding suicide.

Methods Document investigation was conducted at six communities to grasp profile of suicide from the quantitative aspect. In addition, observation research was conducted to see qualitative influence in these communities.

Results Research showed that there has been a variety of programmes at national, prefectural, municipal and private levels. However, programmes are operated independently with limited linkages among relevant organisations and service providers. There is difficulty in operate programmes effectively and efficiently in the current situations. However, by launching SC programmes, relevant organisations became linked each other, share information, work in collaboration, and set up indicators to assess programmes and influence on suicide prevention.

Significance SC strategies provide relevant organisations and service providers with environment in which they can share problems, support each other and work in collaboration, which integrate different activities/services into one comprehensive programme and operate their endeavours in P-D-C-A (Plan-Do-Check- Act) cycle.