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‘Death from overwork’ reaches record high in Japan

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<ul><li style="text-align: justify;">‘Death from overwork’ has increased in Japan</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">At least 1,456 legal claims were made over a one-year period due to the so-called karoshi</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">The phenomenon has been so commonplace that the government actually have a word for it</li> </ul>An unprecedented number of compensation claims related to a death due to overworking has been recorded in Japan, whose extremely competitive work environment has seen a continuous increase of the phenomenon. Latest data from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare revealed that in just one year, a total of 1,456 legal claims were made by families of people who died due to what the Japanese call karoshi, literally “death from overworking.” In particular, many of the victims were found to be working in specific industries such as healthcare, social services, shipping, and construction, which all reported a shortage of workers in recent years. The labor ministry pointed out that suicides related to work rose by 45 percent over the past four years among those 29 and younger. Meanwhile, up to 39 percent of work-related suicides were committed by women over the same period. Government records identify two types of karoshi: cardiovascular illness which is considered if a victim was found to have worked 100 hours of overtime in the month prior to death or 80 hours of overtime in two or more consecutive months, and suicide which is considered if the individual did  at least 160 hours of overtime in one month or more than 100 hours of overtime for three consecutive months. The National Defense Counsel for Victims of Karoshi, has criticized the government for its failure to address the intense working conditions that led to the phenomenon. Japan currently has no laws setting limits for working hours. “The government hosts a lot of symposiums and makes posters about the problem, but this is propaganda. The real problem is reducing working hours, and the government is not doing enough,” the group’s Secretary-General Hiroshi Kawahito told <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/04/death-by-overwork-on-rise-among-japans-vulnerable-workers.html">CNBC</a>. Kawahito, a lawyer who represented families of karoshi victims, also believes that the numbers released by the government are much lower than in the number of actual cases as he claims that officials are reluctant to consider many of the deaths as incidents of karoshi. <a href="http://kickerdaily.com/death-from-overwork-reaches-record-high-japan/" rel="nofollow">Kicker Daily News</a>

‘Death from overwork’ has increased in Japan At least 1,456 legal claims were made over a one-year period due to the so-called karoshi The ...