Japan overwork suicide: Dentsu probed
Print Edition
JAPANESE authorities raided the country’s top advertising agency Dentsu yesterday as they launched a criminal probe into the suicide of a 24-year-old employee due to overwork on suspicion of systematic illegal overtime at the company.
Yesterday’s investigation follows the government’s recognition in September that Matsuri Takahashi died of “karoshi,” or death from overwork.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said investigators from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry raided Dentsu Inc’s Tokyo headquarters and three branch offices on suspicion the company broke the law by forcing Takahashi to engage in chronic overwork.
Investigators suspect widespread illegal overtime at the firm. In Japan, labor officials can conduct criminal investigations and hand over cases to prosecutors for possible indictments.
Karoshi causes hundreds of deaths and illnesses every year in Japan despite efforts to curb overwork.
Labor officials found Takahashi’s overtime pushed past 100 hours a month, way over 80 hours, a threshold for karoshi. But she reportedly was asked to report overtime only below the firm’s own monthly limit, which was 70 hours at the time.
On top of the 40-hour work week the labor standards law sets for most workers, as an exception that serves as a loophole companies can establish voluntary ceilings for overtime, making the law toothless.
Dentsu president Tadashi Ishii said the company will cooperate in the probe. The firm has admitted at least two other karoshi cases since the 1990s and says it is trying to prevent overwork, going so far as to turn off lights in its headquarters after 10pm.
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