Japan Press Weekly

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2015 March 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Ex-junior high school teacher spends 12 years to gain recognition of cerebral hemorrhage as work-related

A former public junior high school teacher recently won recognition of his disease as work-related after a 12-year-long struggle.

Torii Kenji was a teacher at a public junior high school in Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture. In September 2002, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage during a school event. He was 42 years old at the time. Even though he recovered, he was dismissed from the school due to permanent brain damage.

The month before he suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage, he worked 119 hours of overtime at his school for school club activities, class preparation, and helping to prepare for the school festival, according to the school record.

In October 2002, Torii applied to the Fund for Local Government Employees’ Accident Compensation for compensation benefits, claiming that he developed a brain hemorrhage due to excessive heavy workloads. The Fund, however, rejected his application saying that there was no relation between his cerebral hemorrhage and workloads.

Torii made a reexamination request to the Fund but his request was turned down. He filed a lawsuit with the Nagoya District Court on December 2, 2008, demanding the withdrawal of the Fund’s rejection of his application for compensation.

On June 29, 2011, the district court issued a ruling in support of Torii’s claim that the excessive long working hours triggered the cerebral hemorrhage. Two weeks later, the fund operator appealed to a higher court against the ruling.

In the court battle, the Compensation Fund argued that Torii’s cerebral hemorrhage was not work-related as he worked overtime without being issued orders to do so by the school principal. Refuting the Fund’s argument, Torii and his supporters insisted that teachers work under their school master’s overall control and that they have to work overtime in order to finish their work even without an explicit order to do so by the principal.

Torii’s case was eventually taken to the Supreme Court. On February 26, the court upheld the high court recognition of Torii’s disease as work-related.

Representing a civil group supporting Torii’s court battle, Sugibayashi Nobuyuki said, “I hope the Supreme Court decision will help to improve teachers’ harsh work conditions that even result in cases of death from overwork.”


Past related articles:
> Workload for teachers in Japan stands out in world [July 6, 2014]
> Teachers suffer from long working hours [January 22, 2014]
> 5,000 teachers take sick days due to emotional distress [December 18, 2013]