Japan Press Weekly

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2023 August 30 - September 5 [LABOR]

Unions urge Labor Ministry to take measures to eliminate hospital doctors’ excessively long working hours

A national physicians’ union and the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) on August 31 petitioned the Labor Ministry to take measures to prevent hospital doctors’ excessively long working hours by such means as instructing medical institutions to comply with labor laws and increasing the number of doctors.

Ministry data show that nearly 40% of physicians employed in hospitals worked over 960 hours of overtime a year. This amount exceeds the government-set danger line for “karoshi (death from overwork)”. In the same data, about 10% were forced to work overtime over double the karoshi-line. In a survey by the doctors’ union, 5.1% of respondents have worked for a month with no days off.

In April 2024, a new overtime cap rule will be applied to hospital doctors. Under the new rule, the amount of hospital doctors’ overtime will be limited to 960 hours a year, in principle. Regarding doctors employed in large hospitals, the upper limit will be set to 1,860 hours per year.

Doctors’ union head Ueyama Naoto said that in order to make the new overtime cap rule effective, it is necessary for the ministry to thoroughly instruct medical institutions to abide by labor laws.

In addition, Ueyama called for the government measure to increase the number of doctors so that hospital doctors’ excessively long working hours will be eliminated.

Past related article:
> Nearly 40% of hospital doctors work overtime exceeding gov’t-set danger line for death from overwork [ September 2, 2020]