Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 5 - 11 [LABOR]

Court acknowledges steak restaurant manager’s suicide as work-related

The Tokyo District Court on November 4 acknowledged that a 24-year-old male worker at a steakhouse restaurant chain committed suicide due to excessively long working hours and “power harassment”, and ordered the company to pay his parents about 58 million yen in compensation.

The man in May 2007 began to work at the Tokyo-based Sun Challenge Corporation, which operates steakhouse restaurants in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and was promoted to a restaurant manager in July 2009. About one year later, he killed himself.

According to the court ruling, the man worked nearly 13 hours a day for approximately 33 months before his death and was harassed by his boss both verbally and physically. In the ruling, presiding judge Yamada Akira stated that the man suffered from severe depression as a result of excessively long working hours and power harassment from his boss and pointed out that the company neglected its duty to ensure workplace health and safety.

The restaurant chain last year got the nomination for the “Black Corporation” of the Year Award, also known as the Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award.


Past related article:
> 8 companies nominated for ‘Black Corporation’ of the Year Award [June 28, 2013]