Moths in Japanese workplaces

Miwa Sado, a 31-year-old political reporter for Japan’s NHK, died from overwork.

Last week, NHK television publicized the death of a female reporter due to overwork, once again drawing public attention to the painful problem of `working to death` in Japan, the Washington Post reported.

Ms. Miwa Sado, a 31-year-old political reporter, participated in covering the Tokyo Metropolitan Council election and the Japanese upper house election from June to July 2013.

Reporter Sado is one of hundreds of victims each year of the phenomenon of `karoshi,` which in Japanese means death from overwork.

A representative of NHK announced at the press conference that Sado’s death showed `a problem within the station’s organizational structure, including the personnel system and the way it reports elections`.

Work culture is like scorched earth

Japanese people do not have the concept of `work-life balance`.

This culture started in the 1970s of the last century.

`In the Japanese office environment, people always work overtime. Working overtime is almost a part of the job. No one forces employees to do so, but they feel it is a must,` professor

By law, working hours in Japan are 40 hours per week.

`In countries like the US, people freely switch to work for a company with better compensation,` said professor Kenichi Kuroda who teaches at Meiji University in Tokyo.

Not to mention, trade unions often only fight to demand increased wages for workers and do not care about asking businesses to reduce working hours for employees.

Died due to overwork

A man walks in the hallway of an office building in Tokyo.

Victims who die from overwork in Japan often suffer from heart failure or depression leading to suicide.

In addition, Japanese people often do not use all their vacation days as prescribed.

The `karoshi` phenomenon is considered to only happen to male workers.

`Indeed, it is not uncommon for young people in their 30s to die of heart attacks in Japan,` Mr. Kawahito said.

Once authorities confirm that the victim died as a result of overwork, the family will automatically receive compensation through a worker benefits system.

According to a government study conducted with 10,000 companies last year, more than  20% of businesses surveyed said their employees worked more than 80 hours of overtime per month.

The government stepped in

Female reporter Sado worked 159 hours of overtime meaning that during the month before her death, she had consistently worked 5.5 hours of overtime per day.

`She was in a situation where she could not rest. Her work responsibilities forced her to work very late. It can be said that Sado suffered from physical fatigue and lack of sleep that had accumulated over many days,` the agency said.

Sado started working at NHK in 2005 when she was just over 20 years old, according to Japan Times.

`Even now, four years have passed, we still cannot accept the fact that our daughter is gone,` reporter Sado’s parents said in a press release.

The mother of Matsuri Takahashi cried during the press conference.

In 2015, Matsuri Takahashi, who worked at advertising group Dentsu, jumped to his death on Christmas Day at the age of 24.

`I’m dying. I’m so tired,` Takahashi wrote in a phone message.

More than a year after the tragedy, Dentsu president resigned to take responsibility for the incident.

Also at the end of 2015, Kiyotaka Seriwaza, a 34-year-old male employee at a company specializing in home repair, committed suicide because he could not stand the intensity of working 90 hours per week.

The Japanese government is trying to gradually change working culture to root out the painful problem of `karoshi`, including passing laws to reduce the number of workers working more than 60 hours per week and encouraging workers to work more than 60 hours per week.

A government spokesman stated that Japan `needs to end the culture of working long hours so that people can balance their lives, (have time) to raise children and care for the elderly,` according to Bloomberg.

Responding to the government’s call, companies began encouraging employees to leave work on time, take vacations, and stay away from work.

`It is impossible to simply eliminate karoshi,` said professor Morioka at Kansai University.

In an e-mail that Sado sent in the last days of her life, this female reporter had a bad feeling about the price she had to pay for overworking.

`I’m too busy and too stressed. Every day, I think about quitting my job at least once. But I guess I’ll have to try,` Sado wrote.