Japan Press Weekly

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2008 November 12 - 18 [LABOR]

Labor minister says government won’t appeal ruling on nurse’s death from overwork in Osaka

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare will not appeal a court decision that the cause of the death of a nurse at a government-run hospital in Osaka was work-related, caused by an excessively heavy workload and long working hours.

Labor Minister Masuzoe Yoichi stated this in reply to Japanese Communist Party Koike Akira at a House of Councilors Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee meeting on November 13.

Murakami Yuko was a nurse of the National Cardiovascular Center, one of Japan’s most-advanced specialized medical institutions. She died of a stroke in 2001 at the age of 25 apparently as a result of an excessive workload. She worked 80 hours of overtime a month.

Koike said, “The ministry must take measures to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy.”

Masuzoe answered, “We will conduct a survey of current working conditions in national hospitals and take steps to improve them.”

After the committee meeting, Murakami Yuko’s mother, who was listening to Koike and Masuzoe in the public gallery, said, “Tears came into my eyes when I heard the words ‘no appeal.’ I hope better working conditions will be established so that all medical workers can work in good health and that my daughter’s death was not in vain.”

After Yuko’s death, her parents applied for work-related compensation for her death, but the labor ministry refused to recognize her death as work-related.

Later, the Osaka District Court and the subsequent Osaka High Court both judged her death as work-related.

Members from the Osaka branch of the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) supported Yuko’s parents in the court struggle. JCP Dietmembers also took up the issue and called on the government to not appeal the case to an upper court.