In 2022, a 26-year-old doctor in Japan took his own life due to overwork, CNN has reported.
The family of the deceased young man, who had worked over 200 hours of overtime in a single month, called for changes in the country, which has long suffered from a culture of overexertion.
Takashima Shingo worked as a resident doctor at a hospital in Kobe when he took his own life in May of last year, as reported by the public broadcaster NHK.
According to the family's lawyers, Takashima worked over 207 hours of overtime in the month before his death and didn't take any days off for three months, NHK reports.
Konan Medical Center denied these allegations at a press conference last week. However, in June, a government labor inspection agency classified his death as a work-related incident due to his excessive overtime, NHK reports. This highlighted the immense pressure placed on healthcare workers.
Subsequent stress and mental health issues even led to a phenomenon called "karoshi," or "death from overwork," prompting the enactment of legislation aimed at preventing deaths and injuries due to excessive working hours.
"He used to tell me that nobody looked after him. I think the environment got to him," said the deceased's mother.
During the press conference last week, Konan Medical Center backtracked.
"There are many cases where (doctors) spend time on self-study and sleep according to their physiological needs. Because of the high degree of freedom, it's impossible to accurately determine working hours," a representative said.
Microsoft tested a 4-day workweek in Japan, resulting in a 40% increase in productivity.
When contacted by CNN on August 21, a hospital representative said, "We do not acknowledge this case as overtime work and will not comment on it in the future."
Over the years, several cases of overwork have made headlines in national and international news. For instance, in 2017, Japanese authorities concluded that a 31-year-old political reporter who died in 2013 suffered heart failure due to prolonged work hours. According to NHK, she worked 159 hours of overtime in the month before her death.
The issue remains particularly acute in the healthcare sector. A 2016 study showed that over a quarter of full-time hospital doctors work up to 60 hours a week, while 5% work up to 90 hours and 2.3% work up to 100 hours.
In 2017, the Japanese government introduced so-called "Premium Fridays," encouraging companies to release their employees early, at 3 p.m., on the last Friday of the month. They also incentivize Japanese workers to take more vacation days.
By law, workers are entitled to 20 days of vacation per year, yet around 35% of working Japanese employees don't take any.
In the local administrative office in Tosime, a city within the Tokyo Metropolitan District, the administration decided to simply turn off the lights in the office at 7 p.m. so that employees would go home.
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