Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 11 - 17 [LABOR]

Labor Standards Inspection Office recognizes Canon worker’s suicide as work-related

The Numazu District Labor Standards Inspection Office on June 6 recognized the suicide of a Canon research worker at the research and development office in Shizuoka prefecture as caused by overwork.

A 37-year-old research worker killed himself by throwing himself onto the tracks at a railway crossing in November, 2006.

The man started to work at the Fuji-susono Research Park in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1997. After being promoted to a sub-leader, he was in charge of guiding younger research workers while doing his own research work.

In 2006, he had no days off for about 2 months from the end of August. In November, he worked about 260 hours of overtime in order to prepare his presentation. He even continued working at home until 3:00 a.m.

At least from November 2006, he suffered from depression, apparently due to his overwork and the pressure of having to give a presentation. He handed in his resignation on November 29 after his unsuccessful presentation and committed suicide on the following day.

Canon said that it takes the labor standard’s inspection office’s decision seriously and will deal with the matter in a sincere manner. - Akahata, June 14, 2008