Japan Press Weekly

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2016 October 12 - 18 [LABOR]

Bereaved family and Japan Post reach settlement over worker’s suicide

In a lawsuit where the wife of a Japan Post worker who committed suicide demanded damages from the company on the grounds that her husband’s death was caused by excessively harsh working conditions, the two sides on October 12 accepted a court-mediated settlement.

The male worker in 2006 was transferred to a post office in Saitama City. Two years later, he was diagnosed as being in a state of depression and took a month of sick leave. After repeating taking sick leave several times, the worker killed himself in December 2010. His wife in December 2013 filed a damage suit with the Saitama District Court against Japan Post.

During the court battle, the wife pointed out that her husband and his colleagues in his post office were forced to take on excessively heavy sales quotas and that when they failed to fulfill their quotas, they were tacitly urged to buy greeting cards and other postal goods themselves to make up the shortfall. In addition, as a punishment for making mistakes or having accidents, postal workers there had to explain about the incidents in front of hundreds of staff members. The plaintiff argued that the worker went so far as to commit suicide because Japan Post neglected to take appropriate measures for the man who had requested a transfer and repeatedly took sick leave.

The plaintiff’s lawyers in a press conference said that the company expressed its sorrow for the man’s death. They added that they will apply for official recognition of the suicide as work-related.

The postal worker’s wife, 48, said, “I hope that our court battle will work to push all employers to review what they should do to protect workers’ health.”


Past related articles:
> High court recognizes suicide of city bus driver as work-related [April 23, 2016]
> Suicide of an anime worker recognized as work-related [April 20, 2014]