After university graduate, Matsuri Takahashi committed suicide the winter of 2015, the president Tadashi Ishii of Japan’s largest advertising agency, Dentsu, has announced that he will step down.
Takahashi had clocked in 105 hours of overtime that October, which resulted in depression. The Japanese government decided her death was “karoshi” or death by overwork and can also be considered suicide following work-related mental stress. This is one of two types of karoshi that the government identifies. The other is death from cardiovascular illness related to overwork.
The government performed many raids on Dentsu. A study shows that in the country sets very few restrictions on the amount of overtime a worker can obtain. Many companies had a majority of their workers saying they had clocked in over 80 hours of overtime in a single month.
Dentsu has since been reported to prosecutors by the Japanese labor ministry for the violation of Japanese standard labor laws. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been attempting to change the employment laws of Japan, one of which is the overtime regulations.
In Japan, where hard work and honor are synonymous, it often becomes difficult for workers to quit a certain job if things in the workforce get out of touch. They feel a sense of gratitude for being hired and will often stick with their company.
However, this complication with overwork isn’t with Dentsu alone. Even Japan’s second largest newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun received a government warning for the overwork of its employees. The newspaper commented on the issue saying this is a “theme that relates to raising employees’ morale and productivity and improving companies’ profitability.”
The Japanese government has revised their labor laws to support short hours for workers but many say that the revised laws are based on self-regulation. The mother of young Matsuri Takahashi made a comment recently on the anniversary of her daughter’s death saying that she hopes to “change the consciousness of every working person in Japan.”
Tadashi said, the in the wake of his resign, “In order to take full responsibility, I would like to resign as president at a board meeting in January.”
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