‘Death by Overtime’ not that rare, it seems…
Remember that Toyota employee who died as a result of too much overtime? According to this recent Reuters article, his demise isn’t all that odd, at least by Japanese standards. Deaths caused by excessive work numbers are in the ‘hundreds of deaths a year‘.
Man, just how stressful is Corporate Japan? I can empathize, however. My last job was such a pain in the ass I promptly gave Corporate America the figurative finger and would only go back if I were dragged by rabid wolves. If I hadn’t done that, I’m pretty sure I’d be dead or in an institution of some sort. So yeah - I can see how this happens.
A Japanese woman hit out at corporate bosses this week, after her restaurant manager son died of a brain haemorrhage having done 200 hours of overtime in a month.
The case is the latest of hundreds of deaths a year officially determined to have been caused by the hardships of working for Japanese companies, where overtime is a matter of course and holidays few and far between.
Takayuki Maezawa, who died at the age of 32 last October, was the second employee at unlisted restaurant chain Skylark Co Ltd to die from overwork in the last four years, a union official in Tokyo said.
“My son was an extremely responsible person, who could never refuse if asked to do something,” the Asahi Shimbun quoted his 59-year-old mother as telling a news conference on Thursday.
“The company used him. None of his superiors worried about his health.”
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