Karoshi

The video shows the cruel reality of Japanese corporate workers. Karoshi is a Japanese word, which means “death from overwork”. This 37-year-old single woman is suing worker’s compensation over the death of her husband, who was then 30 years old. Her husband died from an irregular heart beat which is often caused by stress. He has been working for Toyota approximately 140 hours of overtime on average every month and his wife believes that this led to his sudden death. It appeared that her husband’s management had confirmed their dedicated employee’s excessive work hours, but her request for a worker’s compensation plan was denied based on the lack of evidence. Overworked Japanese employees are not at risk of dying from cardiovascular disease but also from suicide. Japanese salaried men (referring to Japanese corporate workers)’s brutal work ethic is notorious and this contributed to the rapid economic rise of Japan since WW II.

My father has worked for a large corporation in Japan, and my father fortunately survived because of his relatively laid-back personality but unfortunately some of his staff and coworkers died from Karoshi and one or two of them ended their lives.