Using the 1983-87 data on deaths from pesticide poisoning (in 1986, the fatalities hit an all-time high in Japan), we analysed the geographical differences in the rate of incidence in Fukuoka Prefecture by the standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). The SMRs were compared with the controls of local health centers separately.
The number of deaths from pesticide poisoning were 10, 753 (male: female ratio 3: 2) according to the vital statistics in Japan during the 5 years, and 81% of them was attiributed to suicide and 15% was to accidental exposure.
Fukuoka Prefecture had 351 deaths (223 males and 128 females) from pesticide poisoning, most of them being at age 40 to 50.
Seventy-one percent of the deaths from pesticide were suicide, and the percentage of suicide was higher in females (77%, 99/128) than in males (68%, 151/223).
A study of the SMRs of pesticide poisoning showed that the rates are higher in rural areas (including the Chikugo district) than urban areas (including the Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu City) both in males and females. A similar pattern was observed in the distribution of SMRs of suicide by pesticide.
It was made clear that the higher the mortality from pesticide poisoning, the higher the rate of suicide by pesticide. The easy access to pesticides in rural areas may have contributed to the high incidence of suicide by pesticide. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for all users to exercise strict rigilance against the misuse of pesticides.

The activities for protecting health of inhabitants in the southern part of Ehime Prefecture (people call this part of the prefecture “Nan'yo”) has been developed by the Center of Rural Medicine, since it was established in November, 1965 as an auxiliary organization of the Ehime Prefectural Kitauwa Hospital.
Nan'yo covers an area of 1, 790.3 km² and has 348, 065 population (1970).It consists of two cities, nineteen towns and two villages, and has five Health Centers.
The phenomenon called “over-sparseness of population”, which is one of the manifestations of the contradiction inevitable to the capitalism in Japan is also observed more and more conspicuously in Nan'yo.
In this situation the Center of Rural Medicine pursues the activities of health protection based on the need of inhabitants as a part of the communal program for establishing health protection system, which is pushed forward in cooperation with the Health Centers, the Medical Association of Ehime Prefecture, Tottori University and the agricultural cooperative association.
The main features of the activities for protecting health of inhabitants are as follows.
1) To gain a closer cooperation of the administration of the prefecture
2) To establish a communal system of health protection in cooperation with various medical organizations
3) To establish hospitals based on the need of inhabitants
4) To urge the more substantial medical policy of the communities
5) To contribute to the deepening of understanding in social medicine of medical and paramedical students