Tokyo, Mar 2 (IANS): Suicides committed by school-aged children hit a record high of 512 in 2022 in Japan, data from the education ministry showed on Thursday.

According to the data, the reasons for the children taking their own lives spanned the mental burden of entrance exams to schools and universities, general woes about grades, and worries about their future, Xinhua news agency reported.

The data covered students from elementary school to senior high school age, with suicides by high school boys markedly higher in the reporting period.

As a result of the figures being the highest since comparable data became available, the country's education ministry has pushed local education boards to better identify at-risk students.

Otherwise, the boards have been pushed to provide better career advice to help ease students' concerns about their job prospects after graduating.

The education ministry has also asked high schools, where the number of suicides has been the highest, to report on their efforts to understand why a disproportionately high number of students are taking their own lives, their response in the event of a suicide, and what the schools are doing in terms of suicide prevention.

Separate data from the National Police Agency (NPA), meanwhile, on Thursday showed that cases of child abuse in 2022 also hit a record high.

The agency said that cases of suspected abuse against children aged below 18 that were reported to child welfare sentences surged by 7,703 from the previous year's record to 115,762 cases.

The cases involved murder, physical and emotional abuse, revenge porn and stalking, among others, the NPA said.