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Overwork deaths -- a consequence of Japan's strong work ethics

by yuls.source | July 9, 2008 at 03:29 pm | 356 views | 2 comments

Only yesterday the news came around that China overtook Japan as the second largest economy in the world. Japan slipped to third place with a GDP of 3.7 trillion dollars. Japan still outperforms the economic powerhouses like India, Germany and Russia by a wide margin. But what is the ultimate cost of this success? Japan has one of the highest work ethic standards in the world. These standards may well lead to a booming economy but they can also result in work overload that is sometimes life-threatening. Wikipedia claims a Japanese worker has approximately two hours of overtime a day on average. In almost all cases, the overtime is unpaid. According to Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour, in 2007 alone, overwork caused 147 workers to die from cardiac problems, 208 to become severely physically ill, and 819 to become mentally ill.

With cases of overwork-related deaths on the rise, the families of the deceased are suing for compensation money. However, before the payments are issued, it must be proven that the death has been triggered by overwork. Not surprisingly, the case of overwork death is very difficult to prove. Only 205 workers received any compensation in 2007 according to the data collected by the ministry.

The most recent case of overwork burnout death is the 45-years-old japanese man who used to be a lead engineer in the developement of a hybrid version of Toyota Camry. The man’s identity is not being disclosed at this moment.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he was to leave for the United States.

The man’s death was proven to have resulted from overwork by the Japanese Labour Bureau.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.