Japan has again been forced to confront its work culture after
labour inspectors ruled that the death of a 31-year-old journalist at
the country’s public broadcaster, NHK, had been caused by overwork.
Miwa Sado, who worked at the broadcaster’s headquarters in Tokyo,
logged 159 hours of overtime and took only two days off in the month
leading up to her death from heart failure in July 2013.
A labour standards office in Tokyo later attributed her death to
karoshi (death from overwork) but her case was only made public by her
former employer this week.
Sado’s death is expected to increase pressure on Japanese
authorities to address the large number of deaths attributed to the
punishingly long hours expected of many employees.
The announcement comes a year after a similar ruling over the death
of a young employee at Dentsu advertising agency prompted a national
debate over Japan’s attitude to work-life balance and calls to limit
overtime.
Matsuri Takahashi was 24 when she killed herself in April 2015.
Labour standards officials ruled that her death had been caused by
stress brought on by long working hours. Takahashi had been working more
than a 100 hours’ overtime in the months before her death.
Weeks before she died on Christmas Day 2015, she posted on social media: “I want to die.” Another message read: “I’m physically and mentally shattered.”
Her case triggered a national debate about Japan’s work practices
and forced the prime minister, ShinzÃ…� Abe, to address a workplace
culture that often forces employees to put in long hours to demonstrate
their dedication, even if there is little evidence that it improves
productivity.
The government proposes to cap monthly overtime at 100 hours and
introduce penalties for companies that allow their employees to exceed
the limit – measures that critics say still put workers at risk.
In its first white paper on karoshi last year, the government said one in five employees were at risk of death from overwork.
More than 2,000 Japanese killed themselves due to work-related
stress in the year to March 2016, according to the government, while
dozens of other victims died from heart attacks, strokes and other
conditions brought on by spending too much time at work.
According to the white paper, 22.7% of companies polled between
December 2015 and January 2016 said some of their employees logged more
than 80 hours of overtime each month – the level at which working hours
start to pose a serious risk to health.
Research shows that Japanese employees work significantly longer
hours than their counterparts in the US, Britain and other developed
countries. Japan’s employees used, on average, only 8.8 days of their
annual leave in 2015, less than half their allowance, according to the
health ministry. That compares with 100% in Hong Kong and 78% in
Singapore.
Sado, a political reporter, covered the Tokyo metropolitan assembly
elections and national upper house elections in June and July 2013. She
died three days after the upper house elections.
-Culled from Guardian UK
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