Karoshi (過労死), which can be translated into 'overwork death', is a Japanese term relating to occupation-related sudden death.[1]
The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress and malnourishment or fasting. Mental stress from the workplace can also cause workers to commit suicide in a phenomenon known as karōjisatsu (過労自殺).[1]
Karoshi is also widespread in other parts of Asia. Generally, deaths from overwork are a worldwide occurrence. For example, over 770 wage labourers die of overwork annually in Sweden, a country with robust labour regulations.[2][3][4][5]
History
The first case of karoshi was reported in 1969 with the stroke-related death of a 29-year-old male worker in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper company.[6][7]
In 1988, the Labor Force Survey reported that almost one fourth of the male working employees worked over 60 hours per week (equivalent of two-and-a-half days), which is 50% longer than a typical 40-hour (equivalent of over one-day-and-a-half) weekly working schedule. Realizing the seriousness and widespread nature of this emerging problem, a group of lawyers and doctors set up "karoshi hotlines" that are nationally available, dedicated to helping those who seek consultation on karoshi-related issues.[8]
Japan's rise from the devastation of World War II to economic prominence and the huge war reparations they have paid in the post-war decades have been regarded as the trigger for what has been called a new epidemic. It was recognized that employees cannot work for 12 or more hours a day, 6–7 days a week, year after year, without suffering physically as well as mentally.[9]
Karoshi Hotline
In a 1988 report published by the Karoshi Hotline Network, the majority of the clients who consulted were not workers, but the wives of the workers who had either died because of karoshi or were at high risk of doing so.[14] This indicated that those who were stressed out by work either did not realize the cause was overwork or were under social pressure to not express it explicitly or to seek help.
The Karoshi Hotline received the highest number of calls when it was first established in 1988. From 1988 to 1990, there were a total number of 1806 calls received. From 1990 to 2007, the number of calls received per year was lower, but has not shown a clear trend of further decrease.[15]
Effects on society
Suicide can be induced by overwork-related stress or when people are dismissed. The deceased person's families demand damages when such deaths occur. Life insurance companies started putting one-year exemption clauses in their contracts. They did this so that the person must wait one year to commit suicide in order for the family to receive the money.[16]
There is a new movement of Japanese workers, formed as a result of karoshi. Compared to older Japanese people who often work overtime, young Japanese people are preferring part-time work. This is a new style of career choice for the young Japanese people who want to try out different jobs in order to figure out their own potential. These individuals work for "hourly wages rather than regular salaries," and are called "freeters." The number of freeters has increased throughout the years, from 200,000 in the 1980s to about 400,000 in 1997.[17]
Freeters undergo a special kind of employment, defined by Atsuko Kanai as those who are currently employed and referred to as "part-time workers or arbeit (temporary workers), who are currently employed but wish to be employed as part time workers, or who are currently not in the labor force and neither doing housework nor attending school but wish to be employed only as part-time workers."[18]
Government policies
To provide a strategic plan to decrease the rate of karoshi, the National Institute of Health proposed the establishment of a comprehensive industrial health service program to reduce karoshi and other diseases caused by work-related stress in its 2005 annual report. The program requires communal efforts from the following groups:
As a formal response to this proposal, the Industry Safety and Health Act was revised in 2006. The Act established various terms that focus on work-related health issues, including mandatory health checks and consultations with professional medical personnel for employees who work long hours and have a higher probability of having work related illnesses.[20]
- 1) The government, as the policy maker, should promote shorter working hours, make health services readily accessible, encourage voluntary health examination and enhance the effectiveness of medical care.
- 2) As the group that is more closely involved with the everyday health of employees, labor unions and employers should strive to implement and comply with government policies that focus on reducing work overtime and creating a better work environment.
- 3) The employees themselves should recognize the need to take rests regularly and take preventive measures as needed.[19]
Corporate response
Many companies have been making an effort to find a better work–life balance for their employees. Toyota generally limits overtime to 360 hours a year (an average of 30 hours monthly), and, at some offices, issues public address announcements every hour after 7 p.m. pointing out the importance of rest and urging workers to go home. Nissan allows for remote work to make it easier to care for children or elderly parents.[10] Dozens of large corporations have also implemented "no overtime days", which require employees to leave the office promptly at 5:30 p.m. In 2007, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking, a division of Japan's largest banking group, started to allow employees to go home up to 3 hours early to care for children or elderly relatives. As of January 5, 2009, just 34 of the company's 7,000 employees had signed up for the plan.[10]
In February 2017, the Japanese government launched a campaign called "Premium Friday" asking companies to allow their workers to leave at 3pm on the last Friday of the month. The initiative is part of an attempt to address the punishingly long hours many Japanese are expected to work, prompted by the suicide of a 24-year-old employee at the advertising firm
Media attention
The French-German TV channel Arte showed a documentary titled Alt in Japan (literal translation: "Old in Japan") on 6 November 2006 dealing with older workers in Japan. In 2008, karoshi again made headlines: a death back in 2006 of a key Toyota engineer who averaged over 80 hours overtime each month was ruled the result of overwork. His family was awarded benefits after his case was reviewed.[22]
Taiwanese media have reported a case of karoshi.[23] An engineer had worked for Nanya Technology for 3 years from 2006 to 2009. It was found that he died in front of his computer surrounded by company documents. The prosecution found that the engineer had died of cardiogenic shock. The engineer's parents said that he worked for 16–19 hours a day. CNN shows another reported case of karoshi in Taiwan.[24] This short clip called "The Dangers of Overwork" shows a man who suffered a stroke and was left for three hours before being taken to the hospital.[24]
In other countries
The phenomenon of death by overwork is also widespread in other parts of Asia. 745,194 deaths worldwide were attributable to long working hours in 2016, based on WHO/ILO data.[25]
China
In China, the analogous "death by overwork" concept is guolaosi, which in 2014 was reported to be a problem in the country.[26] In Eastern Asian countries, like China, many businessmen work long hours and then feel the pressures of expanding and pleasing their networks. Making these connections is called building guanxi. Connections are a big part of the Chinese business world, and throughout different parts of China, businessmen would meet up in teahouses to take their job outside of the work atmosphere. It was important for businessmen to broaden their guanxi relationships, especially with powerful officials or bosses.[27]
There is a lot of pressure to go to these nightclubs almost every night to drink heavily to move up in the business world.[28]
See also
Japan:
General:
- Japanese management culture
- Japanese work environment
- Black company (Japan)
- Suicide in Japan
- Japanese labour law
- Critique of work
- Eight-hour day
- Four-day workweek
- Occupational burnout
- Occupational stress
- Right to rest and leisure
- Stress (biological)
External links
- Report on Karoshi (1997) from the Job Stress Network website of the Center For Social Epidemiology (Link not working.)
- Japan working itself to an early grave(statistics for 2006)
- Article in The Economist, December 2007
- Yahoo! News article, 7/8/2008
- Picture of a T-shirt warning of karoshi
References
- Case Study: Karoshi: Death from overwork 2013-04-23^
- Jonna Söderqvist. Över 770 svenskar dör av stress varje år Arbetarskydd, May 28, 2019^
- Anna Sjöström. Allt fler dör till följd av arbetsrelaterad stress