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Big in Japan: Man works himself to death, company compensates wife
Ever hear the joke about the Japanese man who worked himself to death?
Guess what? It's not a joke...
According to the Associated Press (AP), last week a court in Japan ordered the Toyota Motor Corporation to pay compensation to a woman who argued that her husband died from overwork.
According to woman's lawyer, Kenichi Uchino (the departed) had been working overtime as a middle manager at a Toyota factory when he suddenly collapsed and died in February of 2002.
He was just 30 years old.
Before dying, Mr. Uchino had logged 80 hours of overtime a month for a sustained period of six months, and had logged 114 extra hours the month he died.
Sadly, Mr. Uchino is anything but an isolated case. In fact, the Japanese even have a word for punching the clock until you drop.
Working yourself to death is known in Japanese as kar?shi (???), which directly translates to "death from overwork."
Known in medical circles as occupational sudden death, the major medical causes of kar?shi are believed to be stress-induced heart attack and stroke.
Depressed yet? Keep reading as the story gets worse.
Gallery: Japanese Food
Sources indicate that the first recorded case of karōshi was in 1969 following the death by stroke of a 29-year-old man in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper company.
However, karōshi was not officially recognized until 1987 when a large number of business executives started dropping like flies during the glory days of the famous "Bubble Economy."
Following an intense media campaign, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor began to publish annual statistics on karōshi.
Out of morbid curiosity, would you like to hear the statistics for 2006?
Of course you do!
Last year, an estimated 355 workers fell severely ill or died from overwork. This is the highest recorded figure on record, and is sadly a 7.6 percent increase from 2005.
In 147 of these reported cases, individuals died of either strokes or heart attacks.
It gets worse.
A separate 819 workers reported suffering work-induced mental illness. In 176 of these reported cases, workers killed themselves or attempted to do so.
And now back to the original story...
Not surprisingly, karōshi lawsuits are on the rise throughout Japan, and relatives of the deceased have been increasingly awarded compensation payments.
In fact, the protocol has even been streamlined!
Before compensation can be awarded, a specially designated inspection office must acknowledge that the death was work-related. However, this can take several years, and a precedent has been set for court cases to bounce around various judicial systems.
Here is the clincher:
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour also reports that the leading cause of karōshi is the practice of voluntary undocumented unpaid overtime, which is known as sabisu-zangyo. Just to clarify, that means that Japanese workers are choosing to work longer hours without documenting their time or seeking compensation.
On that note, it's nearing midnight here in Tokyo, and suddenly I feel as if I've worked enough for the day...
** All photos were taken by the Associated Press (AP) **
Gallery: Japanese Fashion
Filed under: Business, Asia, Japan, Big in Japan
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
matt Dec 11th 2007 12:16AM
I get paid by the hour and overtime is not allowed where I work. I think 8 hours a day is enough. If others want to work more than that, then more power to them. I need my rest and recreation time for my health and emotional well-being. If others on this board believe being a workaholic is the way to go and won't admit that it's stressful, then so be it.
sharp914 Dec 11th 2007 5:19AM
To=== Doc, Vicky, Anton ch , Charlie. So what, I made a mistake on spelling one word, uncomfortable and three words with a missing letter Inventory, Afford, Avalon. you are so anal, that you must have been toilet trained at gunpoint.
summer Dec 11th 2007 6:36PM
"Toilet trained at gunpoint" That is so clever and funny!
Will Dec 11th 2007 5:37PM
my mom works 70 hour weekes i hope nothing bad happens to her
Post Jan 15th 2008 4:52PM
Unfortunately, those sorts of hours aren't uncommon to the US. I myself pull in about 60+ hours a week, balanced between what will now have to be three jobs. I'm not seeing any large sums of money going into my bank account either. This is simply what i have to do to get by. I don't have any children, however, I'm also single, so i don't have the benefit of a partner to help pay the bills. I'm sure there's many, many more people doing this, both in the (disappearing) middle class and lower class groups of workers. You figure minimum wage is about $6 an hour, and many people have to subsist on that, or not too terribly much more. $6 an hour, by the way, is about 17,000 a year at 8 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for a grand total of 528/hrs a year or 56 hrs a week.
That's pretty damned close to the 80 hours of overtime a month that he worked.
Quite frankly, I suggest a more reasonable set of wages and mandatory restrictions on the amount of work hours a person can do throughout a week.
Of course, someone will end up abusing this somehow.