The Japanese Labor Ministry, which says karoshi — death due to overwork — is to blame for about 100 suicides a year, raided the offices at four different locations of the company Dentsu on Friday after a female employee committed suicide attributed to karoshi.
Matsuri Takahashi was 24 and had worked for Dentsu for nine months before she jumped from her company dormitory on Christmas Day last year, according to USA Today. Takahashi, who was a graduate of a top-notch Tokyo university, was found to have worked more than 100 hours of overtime per month in the months before her death.
Her death was ruled karoshi by Tokyo Labor Bureau investigators on Sept. 30, according to the Financial Times. Takahashi had worked for Dentsu’s digital advertising division, which has been involved in a scandal overcharging clients, and which Dentsu has already admitted was having staff shortages.
Japan’s Labor Standards Laws permit only 15 hours of overtime per week, but agreements between companies and unions typically permit unlimited overtime and are allowed by law. The Labor Ministry reports that Dentsu’s agreement permits a maximum of 55 hours per month of overtime, a limit far exceeded by Takahashi.
In Japan’s last year, which ended March 31, police statistics attributed more than 2,000 suicides to possible overwork or work problems, although the health ministry labeled only 93 as karoshi officially, according to The Telegraph.
Legal cases related to karoshi are also exploding in Japan, with nearly 1,500 suits filed in the year ending March 2015. The increased focus on the unfortunate phenomenon comes as the government filed its first whitepaper about karoshi and as legislation took effect in 2014 to implement measures to prevent karoshi.
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