• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Japanese reporter died after clocking 159 hours of overtime

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/05/news/japan-work-overwork-woman-dies-karoshi/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+(RSS%3A+CNN+-+Most+Recent)

Japan's public broadcaster has revealed that one of its reporters died from overwork.

NHK said that labor officials had concluded that the 31-year-old political reporter died from heart failure caused by spending long hours on the job.

Japan, known for its 'salaryman' culture and punishing work hours, has struggled for years to tackle the impact of overwork on employees' health. A government study published last year found that one in five workers is at risk of working themselves to death.

Excessive hours are such a big problem that there's even a Japanese word for death by overwork: karoshi.

According to a news story published by NHK, Miwa Sado had worked 159 hours of overtime in the month before her death.

The circumstances of Sado's death in 2013 had not been made public until this week.

NHK said it was taking the death of its employee very seriously. The broadcaster has pledged to reform the way its reporters work.
Related: Japan needs more workers but can't find them

The 2015 suicide of another Japanese worker, Matsuri Takahashi, had previously been linked to overwork.

Japanese regulators found that she had been forced to work excessively long hours at an advertising agency, clocking about 105 hours of overtime in the month leading up to her death. The extreme schedule resulted in her suicide, they ruled.

The CEO of the ad company resigned over the issue.

Labor lawyers and citizens groups have for decades pushed for changes to Japanese law to recognize karoshi as a serious social issue. Their efforts resulted in a 2014 law that called for better working conditions but didn't force companies to act.

Truly sickening. Why is this 'salaryman' culture even a thing out there?
 

Line_HTX

Member
CEO resigning is not good enough. There must be hell to pay.

And these law changing efforts still don't do shit to stop this from happening since that lady that worked in Dentsu committed suicide.
 

Eusis

Member
Some asshole from America exported the concept to them last I heard. Look up "working to the bone, then until the bone is dust, then sell the dust" or something along those lines.

Labor rights have been in decline for a long time.

I wonder how much of this is just cultural though - are long hours the only way to get decent career advancement in Japan?
 

Izuna

Banned
They need to allow people time to fuck to fix their population issue. This isn't helping.

Time isn't going to help them fuck.

Sadly they have very deep cultural issues that are new and no one really knows what the fuck is going on.

Company can flat out give bonuses to workers for having babies and that still isn't working.

Not to mention half the adults who are virgins in Tokyo... ;/
 
They need to allow people time to fuck to fix their population issue. This isn’t helping.

There's more to it then that. I think it was Vice who did a story on this and was interviewing a lot of people and they were doing some statistical polls and people just didn't want to have sex.
 
I don't know, maybe hire more people and put a cap on allowable overtime hours. I understand that companies may need it, but that's insane. The money isn't worth it at that point.

EDIT: They are gonna have to have even more lax laws on immigration to cover the demand for work. There maybe a blessing in this crisis
 

Saganator

Member
Japan as a country is getting fucked up by it's backwards corporate culture. They really need to do something about it.
 
Truly sickening. Why is this 'salaryman' culture even a thing out there?

I wish I knew. It seems super fucked up that it's considered bad to leave work before your boss does, and then often you have to attend drinking parties that go until late at night. I've also heard that most overtime is unpaid, although I don't know how true that is depending on the company.

This is part of the reason they're having population issues. You're overworked and tired as shit all the time so you have no time for relationships, or you don't want to get a full time job because you may have these issues so you don't have the kind of money that can support a household with kids. Regulate this shit, hefty fines and payouts to families for companies that are not sending workers home in reasonable hours. Force them to follow the guidelines!
 
I'm a fucking mercenary.
I'm not doing a single extra hour unless I'm told I'm getting paid.

I've had some bad rep over the years for being a "clockwork man", but my family time is precious to me.
 

Acorn

Member
Another fucked thing about this culture. Self worth is so tied up in your job, getting laid off can lead vulnerable people over the edge.
 
It's all in the mindset of the company heads, who place tradition and repetition on a pedestal. Look at the sexual discrimination laws. They sound good on paper, but are still left up to the company heads on whether they want to actually enforce them.
 

Sulik2

Member
Japan working culture will kill its own society.

Its not will, it is killing their society. Alcoholism, suicide rates and low birth rates are already having a massive effect on their society and all three can be blamed on their toxic work culture.
 

z1ggy

Member
I'm a fucking mercenary.
I'm not doing a single extra hour unless I'm told I'm getting paid.

I've had some bad rep over the years for being a "clockwork man", but my family time is precious to me.

That's the way it should be. Working for free is a waste of our lifetime.
 

Slayven

Member
I'm a fucking mercenary.
I'm not doing a single extra hour unless I'm told I'm getting paid.

I've had some bad rep over the years for being a "clockwork man", but my family time is precious to me.

LOL nothing funnier when they try to shame you into working over. As long as the bills are paid fuck that noise.
 

zeemumu

Member
I'm a fucking mercenary.
I'm not doing a single extra hour unless I'm told I'm getting paid.

I've had some bad rep over the years for being a "clockwork man", but my family time is precious to me.

A literal mercenary or a contractor but mercenary sounds cooler?
 

shaneo632

Member
As someone who works like 25 hours a week I will never understand this shit. Work to live, goddammit.

EDIT: I remember when I used to work as an office temp in London, my boss said I "wasn't a team player" because I arrived at 8:57am every day and was out the door by 5:03pm at the absolute latest.
 

Acorn

Member
LOL nothing funnier when they try to shame you into working over. As long as the bills are paid fuck that noise.
I'll do an occasional unpaid hour aslong as my work returns the favour when I need to leave early or whatever.
 

Redd

Member
That's crazy and here I work 10 hours overtime a week for the extra pay. Honestly if they switched me to salary I'm clocking out at 40 a week tops.
 

Zee-Row

Banned
Japanese work culture fucking sucks. I remember reading stories of game developers sleeping in their offices for weeks just to meet the deadline.
 

Fuzzery

Member
As someone who works like 25 hours a week I will never understand this shit. Work to live, goddammit.

EDIT: I remember when I used to work as an office temp in London, my boss said I "wasn't a team player" because I arrived at 8:57am every day and was out the door by 5:03pm at the absolute latest.
What do you do?
 

Stuart444

Member
There's more to it then that. I think it was Vice who did a story on this and was interviewing a lot of people and they were doing some statistical polls and people just didn't want to have sex.

To be fair, why would you want to have sex after working insane hours like this. Working so much, and then doing those after work drinking shit, can't blame people for wanting to just sleep instead of fucking.
 

AlexBasch

Member
As a writer in a newspaper, I can tell you that 13+ hours shifts are a normal occurrence at my job.

It's not cool at all but haven't found another option yet. I'm looking, though.

Poor guy.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
As someone who works like 25 hours a week I will never understand this shit. Work to live, goddammit.

EDIT: I remember when I used to work as an office temp in London, my boss said I "wasn't a team player" because I arrived at 8:57am every day and was out the door by 5:03pm at the absolute latest.

Yeah I've had that. And I've been told by my boss at my yearly review that my work is good, but I should spend more time socialising with coworkers as they often go out together after work. Fuck off, that's my time
 
Another fun fact is that employees can often work as long as their boss does. Or rather, as long as their boss stays in the office. In theory, he could be doing anything, but the employee has to stay until he leaves for the night.
 
Shit when I was in my 20's I worked 48-72 hours of overtime (that's in addition to the regular 40 not total) every week while offshore. Last I heard they've at least made it so you can't stay out on the rigs for over two weeks at a time but back then I'd stay out for a month or more and work those hours. Super easy work and it was still brutal on your psyche.

The lack of proper sleep was the worst. By the time my time offshore was almost over every month I'd be cursing out my boss in just full blown don't give a fuck mode but everyone understood that it was just part of the game lol. I couldn't imagine doing it in my 30's. Fuck that
 

The Kree

Banned
Y'all got a single word specifically for death by overwork and won't do anything to reduce it.

Seems reasonable.
 
Japanese work culture fucking sucks. I remember reading stories of game developers sleeping in their offices for weeks just to meet the deadline.

A japanese friend of mine sleeps in the office once or twice a week. They even have beds in a seperate room from the office...
 

Slayven

Member
Y'all got a single word specifically for death by overwork and won't do anything to reduce it.

Seems reasonable.

Giles Prentice: A Broken what?

Secretary Baird: Broken Arrow. It's a Class 4 Strategic Theatre Emergency. It's what we call it when we lose a nuclear weapon.

Giles Prentice: I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.
.
 

jay

Member
I'm sure a company or two making slight policy changes that likely pan out to doing nothing will radically change the culture.
 

SomTervo

Member
"Japan needs more workers but can't find them"

You need to open your borders, Japanese friends. I know your culture hates it but otherwise you're at risk of extinction.

Some asshole from America exported the concept to them last I heard.

Yup.

The Americans said "you can't have an army but here have our dystopian capitalist culture" and the Japanese turned the knob to 11.
 

KorrZ

Member
I have a reputation at my employer for being anti-overtime.

I established it immediately and have worked to keep adamant about it.

I've heard some jokes from coworkers from time to time about bolting out the door at the strike of 5 but idgaf.
 

JoeBoy101

Member
For those people bringing up their OT, please bear in mind that in a 30 day month, 159 is roughly 5 extra hours each day, each and every day. So, she did 75 hour work weeks for four weeks straight. And that's assuming an even distribution.

God only knows what she worked over the previous month or three.

KorrZ said:
I have a reputation at my employer for being anti-overtime.

I established it immediately and have worked to keep adamant about it.

I've heard some jokes from coworkers from time to time about bolting out the door at the strike of 5 but idgaf

That can cost you a job. Cost me one. But then, any employer pushing everyone for unpaid OT you need to run from screaming.
 
Top Bottom