Japan Press Weekly

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2016 October 12 - 18 [LABOR]

JCP Takahashi demands legal limit for overtime hours

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Takahashi Chizuko denounced the Abe government at a Lower House Budget Committee session on October 12 for being reluctant to place legal restrictions on overtime hours while claiming that it will work to prevent “karoshi” (death from overwork).

Takahashi referred to the first white paper on preventive measures against “karoshi” which was recently released by the Labor Ministry. The paper states that between 2011 and 2015, a total of 2,128 workers died after working overtime for more than 80 hours a month on average.

Noting that the prevention of “karoshi” is the most pressing issue, Takahashi questioned Prime Minister Abe Shinzo about his stance on this matter. Abe replied that the Council for the Realization of Work Style Reform, a panel set up under the prime minister, will discuss how to restrict long working hours.

Takahashi cited the fact that young workers for Dentsu, a major advertising agency in Japan, have committed suicide since the 1990s and that all the cases have been recognized as work-related deaths. “The firm’s harsh working environment has remained unchanged for a quarter of a century,” she pointed out.

Labor Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa said in response that the chief of the Tokyo Labor Bureau summoned Dentsu executives on October 11 and instructed them to implement effective measures to stop forcing excessively heavy workloads on workers.

The JCP parliamentarian pointed to the loophole in the Labor Standards Law which allows employers to have employees work beyond the legal working hours if they reach a labor agreement. She underscored the urgent need to close this loophole by legalizing the Labor Minister-recommended upper limit for overtime hours.

Past related article:
> 4 opposition parties jointly submit a bill to regulate working hours [April 20, 2016]