In Japan work is a highly valued aspect of life, and with it comes the concept of company loyalty. This can be demonstrated by working many hours of overtime, and many times these hours are expected and even contracted. While Japan’s 2018 Workstyle Reform Act outlawed working more than 45 hours of overtime in a single month, it’s not uncommon for companies to force their employees to hide their true working hours or for employees to even do so on their own. Only 7% of companies give their employees the legally mandated one day off per week. Japanese workers are so overworked that there’s even a word for it: karoshi [kuh-RO-shee]. Karoshi was first recognized in the 1970s and is a term used to refer to fatalities caused by heart attack and stroke due to stress brought on by the workplace. Some examples of karoshi are: working 110 hours a week, working 3,000 hours a year with no days off in 15 years, working 4,320 hours a year, and working 34-hour shifts 5 times a month. People who die by suicide due to mental stress are called karÅjisatsu [karo-jeh-SAT-soo]. It has gotten so bad that there’s even a Karoshi Hotline Network that receives an average of 300 calls a year. Change might happen slowly in a society where values surrounding dedication and sacrifice are so deeply ingrained in its working population, but it is happening. Efforts by the government to deter karoshi are in full swing, but hope for a better future in Japan is still on the horizon.
