過労死（かろうし、英:karōshi）とは、周囲からの暗黙の強制などにより長時間の残業や休日なしの勤務を強いられる結果、精神的・肉体的負担で、労働者が脳溢血、心臓麻痺などで突然死することや、過労が原因で自殺すること（いわゆる過労自殺）などである。
概要[編集]
過労が原因となって、心筋梗塞、脳出血、クモ膜下出血、急性心不全、虚血性心疾患などの脳や心臓の疾患を引き起こし死に至る。また過労はしばしばうつ病を引き起こすが、過労によるうつ病から自殺した場合も含む。
2014年時点で、厚生労働省の統計によると、過去10年ほどのあいだに、過労による自殺者（自殺未遂も含む）が約10倍に増え[1]、2013年時点で日本で196人が過労死している[2]。働き盛りのビジネスマンに多いとされてきたが、近年では若者も増加傾向にあり、40-50歳代から20歳代にまで広がっている。女性も増加傾向にあるが、大半は男性である[3]。
また、過労・長時間労働は、うつ病や燃え尽き症候群を引き起こしがちで、その結果自殺する人も多いので、「過労自殺」も含む用語としてしばしば使われる。
何を「過労死」とするかについては、時期や文献によって若干のずれがある。（すでに資料としては古くなったものであるが）厚生労働省の2002年の「産業医のための過重労働による健康障害防止マニュアル」では、「過労死とは過度な労働負担が誘因となって、高血圧や動脈硬化などの基礎疾患が悪化し、脳血管疾患や虚血性心疾患、急性心不全などを発症し、永久的労働不能または死に至った状態をいう」とした[4]。
最初、日本で起きているこの状態が欧米には無い特異な状態、日本独特の異常な状態、いかにも日本的な現象として報道されたものの、（もともと英語圏では無い現象なので）英語に訳す時work oneself to deathなどと強引に意訳され、しかも訳の表現が一定しなかったが、もともとこうしたことは日本以外ではほとんど起きていなかったので、「いかにも日本的な現象」と見なされ、また、しばしばもとの日本語表現もあわせて紹介され、日本では「過労死 karoshi」という表現で呼ばれていることが欧米で知られるようになり、英語やフランス語でも「karoshi」や「karōshi」と音写するようになった。今では「KAROSHI」は英語の辞書や他言語の辞書にも掲載されている。2002年には、オックスフォード英語辞典にも掲載された。これは過労死が日本の労働環境を表すと同時に、日本以外の世界にも広がっている働きすぎに起因する健康破壊を端的に表す言葉になってきたことである[5]。[6]
メカニズム[編集]
過労死には一般的に以下の2種類の直接的原因がしられている。
精神疾患による自殺[編集]
働き過ぎは精神のバランスを喪失させ、死への願望（希死念慮）をもたらす。「眠りたい以外の感情を失った」と訴える患者もおり、抑うつ状態やうつ病である場合が多い。ただ、「労働時間の長さ＝自殺の危険性」というわけではなく、人により許容度が異なるが、それを職場の上司が理解していない場合が多い。また、オフの時間の過ごし方も影響する。睡眠不足の第一の原因は厚生労働省の平成28年版過労死等防止対策白書によると残業時間の長さになっており、36.1％である[7]。
心臓・血管疾患による死亡[編集]
長時間労働は疲労を蓄積させ、血圧を上昇させる。そのことにより血管は少しずつダメージを受け、動脈硬化をもたらし、脳出血や致命的な不整脈を起こしたり、血栓を作り心筋梗塞、脳梗塞を引き起こす[7]。
日本[編集]
2014年11月1日に「過労死等防止対策推進法」が施行された[2]。同法により、過労死や過労自殺をなくすため、国（＝日本の行政）が実態調査を行い効果的な防止対策を講じる、とされており、防止の方針を具体的に定めた大綱が作られることになっている[2][2]。また国は、過労死等に関する実態調査、過労死等の効果的な防止に関する研究等を行うものとされ、さらに国及び地方公共団体は、過労死等を防止することの重要性について広く国民の理解と関心を深めるための瀬策を講ずるものとされる。
これまでは、日本人が過労死する状態があるにもかかわらず、日本では「過労」という言葉をはっきりと冠した法律も無く、日本の行政は、企業経営者の都合・顔色ばかりをうかがい、過労死をきちんと体系的に防止するしくみもつくらないまま放置していたが、この法律が施行されたことによって、状況の改善の一歩が踏み出された。日本全国の人々に向けて、弁護士が過労死に関する無料電話相談を開始した[2]。
労災認定基準[編集]
厚生労働省の労災認定基準[8]では、脳血管疾患及び虚血性心疾患等（略称：脳・心臓疾患）を取り扱っている。2000年7月に最高裁が下した自動車運転手の脳血管疾患の業務上外事件の判決を契機に[9]、2001年12月に認定基準が改正され、発症前6ヶ月間の長期間に渡る疲労の蓄積、特に現在では労働時間の長さが数字で明記され、認定に際して考慮されるようになった。
仕事との因果関係の立証が難しいため、脳・心臓疾患の労災請求から決定（認定または不認定）までの所要日数は平成21年度で210日となっている[10]。また、過労死の労災認定請求のうち過労死と認められるのは5割弱である[11]。
なお、関連として、1999年11月策定の精神障害・自殺の労災か否かの判断指針により、うつ病による過労自殺も労災として位置づけが明確化されている。
裁判[編集]
過労死を巡る裁判としては刑事、行政、民事の3種類がある。
刑事裁判[編集]
労働基準法では、法定労働時間を1日につき8時間、1週につき40時間と定め、これを超える場合には事前に労使協定を締結することを義務づけており、この上限時間も原則1年間につき360時間と定めている（労働基準法第32条、平成10年労働省告示第154号）。しかし過労死に至るケースの場合はこれらの時間を大幅に上回る時間外労働を行っており、労働基準法第32条違反、また、これらの時間外労働に対して正当な割増賃金（通常の賃金の25%以上の割り増し）が支払われていないケースがほとんどであり、同法第37条違反として労働基準監督署が事業主を送検するケースがみられる。ただし、労働基準法第32条違反は最高で罰金30万円、同法第37条違反は最高で懲役6か月又は罰金30万円と定められており、人を死に至らせる不法行為に見合った刑罰の重さとなっていないとの批判が、主に労働者団体等から唱えられている。
行政裁判[編集]
過労死が起こった場合、遺族はこの死亡が業務に起因するものであるとして労働基準監督署に労災補償給付を求めて申請を行うが、上記のように申請すべてについて労災認定が行われるものではないことから、労働基準監督署長が不認定の処分を下した場合、遺族は処分があったことを知った日の翌日から起算して60日以内に、都道府県労働局に置かれる労働者災害補償保険審査官（労災審査官）に対して審査請求を行う。労災審査官が労働基準監督署長の処分を妥当と認めた場合（不認定相当とした場合）は、遺族は厚生労働大臣所轄の労働保険審査会に対して再審査請求を行うことができる。
なお、労災審査官に審査請求を行ってから3か月以内に審査請求に対する決定がなされない場合、遺族は労災審査官の決定を待たずして労働保険審査会に再審査請求を行うことができる（労働者災害補償保険法第38条第2項）。再審査請求に対する決定でも労働基準監督署長の不認定相当とされた場合、遺族は労働基準監督署長を被告として、行政処分（＝労災不認定処分）の取消しを求めて行政訴訟を起こすこととなる。原則として、再審査請求に対する労働保険審査会の採決を経た後でないと提訴することはできないが、再審査請求を行ってから3ヵ月以内に裁決がない場合などは、再審査を待たずに行政訴訟を起こすことができる（同法第40条）。
この行政訴訟は地方裁判所に提起するものであることから、労災の認定に関しては事実上「六審制」が採られているといえる（労働基準監督署長→労災審査官→労働保険審査会→地方裁判所→高等裁判所→最高裁判所）。
ちなみに、労働事件が先例として判決集に登載される場合は、被告の会社名が事件名となるが（例：「○○コーポレーション事件」）、労災不認定取消請求事件の場合は労働基準監督署長が被告となるため、過労死の起こった会社を併記するのが通例である（例：「○○労働基準監督署長（△△産業）事件」）。
民事裁判[編集]
過労死が起こった場合、企業が管理責任を怠ったとして裁判が起こることはつきものであるが、過労死の多くは勤務中に死に至るのではなく、激務な仕事をやめ1か月から数か月後に死に至るケースが多く、また、脳・心臓疾患は日常生活の習慣（高血圧気味であった、肥満気味であった、等）が過労により増悪することにより引き起こされることも多く、企業側は因果関係がないと主張する為、長期化することが多い。
Karōshi (過労死?), which can be translated literally as "overwork death" in Japanese, is occupational sudden mortality. The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress and a starvation diet. This phenomenon is also widespread in South Korea, where it is referred as 'gwarosa' (과로사). In China, overwork-induced suicide is called 'guolaosi' (过劳死).
History[edit]
The first case of karōshi was reported in 1969 with the stroke-related death of a 29-year-old male worker in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper company.[1] The term was invented in 1978 to refer to an increasing number of people suffering from fatal strokes and heart attacks attributed to overwork. A book on the issue in 1982 brought the term into public usage, but it was not until the mid to late 1980s, during the Bubble Economy, however, when several high-ranking business executives who were still in their prime years suddenly died without any previous sign of illness, that the term emerged into Japanese public life. This new phenomenon was immediately seen as a new and serious menace for people in the work force. In 1987, as public concern increased, the Japanese Ministry of Labour began to publish statistics on karōshi.
Japan's rise from the devastation of World War II to economic prominence in the post-war decades has been regarded as the trigger for what has been called a new epidemic. It was recognized that employees cannot work for 12 or more hours a day, 6–7 days a week, year after year, without suffering physically as well as mentally. It is common for the overtime to go unpaid.[2][3] In an International Labour Organization article about karōshi,[4] the following four typical cases of karōshi were mentioned:
1.Mr. A worked at a major snack food processing company for as long as 110 hours a week (not a month) and died from a heart attack at the age of 34. His death was recognized as work-related by the Labour Standards Office.
2.Mr. B, a bus driver, whose death was also recognized as work-related, worked 3,000 hours a year. He did not have a day off in the 15 years before he had a stroke at the age of 37.
3.Mr. C worked in a large printing company in Tokyo for 4,320 hours a year including night work and died from a stroke at the age of 58. His widow received workers’ compensation 14 years after her husband's death.
4.Ms. D, a 22-year-old nurse, died from a heart attack after 34 hours of continuous duty five times a month.
As well as physical pressure, mental stress from the workplace can cause karōshi. People who commit suicide due to mental stress are called "karōjisatsu (過労自殺)." The ILO also lists some causes of overwork or occupational stress that include the following:
1.All-night, late-night or holiday work, both long and excessive hours. During the long-term economic recession after the collapse of the bubble economy in the 1980s and 1990s, many companies reduced the number of employees. The total amount of work, however, did not decrease, forcing each employee to work harder.
2.Stress accumulated due to frustration at not being able to achieve the goals set by the company. Even in economic recession, companies tended to demand excessive sales efforts from their employees and require them to achieve better results. This increased the psychological burden placed on the employees at work.
3.Forced resignation, dismissal, and bullying. For example, employees who worked for a company for many years and saw themselves as loyal to the company were suddenly asked to resign because of the need for staff cutbacks.
4.Suffering of middle management. They were often in a position to lay off workers and torn between implementing a corporate restructuring policy and protecting their staff.
Effects on society
Many will be prepared to work unpaid overtime to an extreme extent, particularly since their younger co-workers will often quit when a job is too strenuous.
The deceased person's relatives demand compensation payments when such deaths occur. However, before compensation can be awarded, the labour inspection office must acknowledge that the death was work-related. Since this may take many years in detailed and time-consuming judicial hearings, many do not demand payment.
There is a new movement of Japanese workers, as a result of Karoshi. Young Japanese are choosing part-time work over their elder counterparts who work over-time. This is a new style of career choice for the young Japanese people who want to try out different jobs in order to figure out their own potential. They are called "freeters". A special kind of employment defined by Atsuko Kanai, as those who are currently employed and referred to as, "part-time workers or arbeit (temporary workers), who are currently employed but wish to be employed as part time workers, or who are currently not in the labor force and neither doing housework nor attending school but wish to be employed as part-time workers." (Karoshi (Work to Death) in Japan, Kanai, 2008) "Freeters" are not in school but they are ages 15–34 and if women, are unmarried. The movement of the "freeters" has its problems, however. Most "freeters" are failing to launch a successful career based on a few reasons. Due to their part-time work, their annual income is around 1 million yen or around $8,500 USD. Also, the economic growth in Japan is slow, making it difficult for "freeters" to switch to regular employment. Another problem is "freeters" are given menial tasks, which makes it almost impossible to gain any real experience, which is necessary when converting to full-time employment. (Kanai, 2003) It may seem as if being a "freeter" is the answer to the over worked, near Karoshi individual suffering from long work hours, however, being a non-regular employee or "freeter" who are supposedly wanting to only work part-time, are finding themselves working 60 hours a week or more. Since non-regular employees wages are so low, it is necessary for them to work longer hours, negating the desire to be a "freeter". "Freeters" are now facing the risk of karoshi just as regular workers due to their long hours.
There are other undesirable results, other than karoshi, that arise from working long hours. A psychological trait, known as workaholism has been shown to lead one to work long hours. (Spence & Robbins, 1992) There are three defining factors of workaholism, they are as follows: High work involvement, being driven to or compelled to work by inner pressures, and thirdly, low enjoyment of work. (Kanai, 1996). The latter suggests a contradiction. However, Kanai, argued that workaholism is not a psychological trait but rather results from adaptation to that work demand overload. Individuals that overload on work is not because they are workaholics but that the demand of the workload brings out psychologically and behavioral characteristics similar to those with workaholism. Management welcomes hard work and rewards with promotions. Morioka (2005), suggests that in order to eliminate the harmful effects of workaholism, the workplace should be responsible for managing workload issues.
Overworking also has a negative effect on the family. Men who become too busy with their jobs think less about their family. There is high family depression as a result. As the men focus on their jobs, they tend to develop negative feelings towards family. They take on less role in family life as they continue to overwork. The men sees the family as something that is taking away from his work, which creates a resentment toward the family. As a result, avoiding family time increases, even though it is their family that inspires them to work hard in the first place. (Kanai, 2002) The findings from Kanai, suggest that excessive working hours are harmful to family life in that not only are they spending less time with their families but they develop hostility toward the family.
However, it could also be said that the men had taken on these jobs for the sake of providing for their family, but ultimately become less effective as a resource due to their exhaustion and complete focus on earning money. It is likely salarymen go into that lifestyle simply for the money, because the jobs pay well, and if they work long hours they can earn large sums of money and send it to their families to help provide for them since in traditional Japanese families, the father is usually the main worker in the household.
Salaryman：
A Japanese businessman, also known as a salaryman サラリーマン ("'sararīman'"), is often a victim of 'karōshi' due to the strenuous work hours their job requires, in addition to the mandatory after-hours socializing and drinking that their jobs require. [5] Often these salarymen are invited to nomikai, or "drinking parties," to build better connections between coworkers in the company. [6] According to an article on Gaijinpot, "A common saying in Japan is, 'if you want to work your way up the corporate ladder you have to drink.' This was how many older generation workers established relationships and considered this the normal way of doing business."[7] According to that, a key to success in business was to go out and participate in this mandatory socializing with coworkers. Since not everyone can keep up with the pace and immersion of salaryman life, stress-induced death became fairly common. Due to this high-stress nature of a salaryman's job, death by cardivascular diseases or mental disorders were some of the two biggest factors.[8]
Since Japanese businessmen are under a lot of work-related pressures, karōshi suicides have increased, especially due to economic crises. [9] Even those that were able to keep their jobs, after their company laid off multiple employees, experienced a large increase in work. "In 2000, 28% of regular Japanese employees worked 50 hours or more per week, compared to 16% to 21% in New Zealand, USA, Australia and the UK and less than 6% in 13 other industrialized nations."[10]
Businessmen in Japan have been overworked, but physicians, more specifically, have been feeling great pressures of being overworked, while facing a moral obligation to continue. Physicians work at about an average of 65 hours a week or more. [11] "They are reaching the limit in terms of the number of service hours they can provide without risking their own health.” [12] The government used to have restrictions on the number of physicians that could attend medical school, but now they have increased medical school enrollment. [13] It takes years for physicians to become qualified, so it is critical that alternate measures come into play before karōshi takes a toll on physicians in Japan.
Corporate response[edit]
A number of companies have been making an effort to find a better work-life balance for their employees. Toyota, for example, now generally limits overtime to 360 hours a year (an average of 30 hours monthly), and, at some offices, issues public address announcements every hour after 7 p.m. pointing out the importance of rest and urging workers to go home. Nissan offers telecommuting for office workers to make it easier to care for children or elderly parents.[3] Dozens of large corporations have also implemented "no overtime days", which require employees to leave the office promptly at 5:30 p.m. However, since their workload is too high, few workers can actually take advantage of this, and opt to stay in the office with the lights off or to simply take their work home, "cloaked overtime" called "furoshiki" (風呂敷) after the Japanese traditional wrapping cloth.[citation needed]
In 2007, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking, a division of Japan's largest banking group, started to allow employees to go home up to 3 hours early to care for children or elderly relatives. As of January 5, 2009, just 34 of the company's 7,000 employees had signed up for the plan.[3]
The problem with unpaid overtime in companies is that the overtime is simply not recorded in many cases. The amount of overtime is regulated by labor regulations, so, in order to not contradict labor regulations, workers are told not to record the overtime, since it would be considered an illegal action from the side of the company. The workers themselves often rationalize this by attributing the overwork to lacking skills from their side, describing a lack of familiarity with the work, "not being trained enough" as the cause for not being able to finish in a more timely manner. In general, overtime is something that is accepted as part of work, and protest against it is rare, due to concern for the reaction of colleagues, superiors and even family and friends. "Seken" (世間), or the "public gaze" (others' opinions about one's behavior) is a strong cultural factor in this. It is safe to assume that most statistics of overtime in Japanese companies are not accurate, since overtime is not recorded in many occasions. It is not uncommon for many Japanese employees to work late hours until 2-3am, and being expected to be in the office again at 9am. In some cases (especially in subsidiaries of big listed companies that have to cope with the pressure of parent companies, who generate margins through exploitation of daughter companies) employees have been reported to have worked 300 hours of overtime in a single month. These statistics are in almost all cases not official, and most employees would always refrain from making such statements to authorities or the press, nor would they agree to be named.
Asia & Pacific
Do Japanese really work themselves to death? In some cases, yes.

Kiyoshi, left, and Mitsuko Serizawa sit in their living room with a portrait of their son, Kiyotaka, who killed himself a year ago after working 90-hour weeks as a supervisor at a building maintenance company (Anna Fifield/The Washington Post)
By Anna Fifield 　July 31  
KASHIWA, JAPAN — In the United States, there’s no end to stories and listicles and books telling you how to work more productively so you can spend more time with your family or doing the things you love.
In Japan, there’s not even a term for “work-life balance.” What there is, though, is a word for “death by overwork.” It’s “karoshi,” and it’s considered such an inevitable result of Japan’s notoriously grueling work culture that it’s hardly even discussed.But every year here, hundreds, maybe thousands, of Japanese people literally work themselves to death.
Kiyotaka Serizawa was one of them.
A year ago in July, the 34-year-old killed himself after working crazy hours — 90 hours a week during the last weeks of his life — at a company that does maintenance at apartment buildings.
“His colleagues told me that they were amazed how much he worked,” his father, Kiyoshi Serizawa, said in an interview in their family home. “They said they’d never seen anyone who didn’t even own the company work so hard.”Japan has a working culture where spending long hours at the grindstone, or in compulsory socializing with superiors after work, is the norm.　It began in the 1970s, when wages were relatively low and employees wanted to maximize their earnings. It continued through the boom years of the 1980s, when Japan became the world’s second-largest economy and everyone was on the juggernaut.
And it remained after the bubble burst in the late 1990s, when companies began restructuring and employees stayed at work to try to ensure they weren’t laid off.　Still, irregular workers — who worked without benefits or job security — were brought in, making the regular workers toil even harder.
Now, no one blinks an eyelid at 12-hour-plus days.
[ It’s official: Japan’s population is dramatically shrinking ]
“In a Japanese workplace, overtime work is always there. It’s almost as if it is part of scheduled working hours,” said Koji Morioka, an emeritus professor at Kansai University who is on a committee of experts advising the government on ways to combat karoshi. “It’s not forced by anyone, but workers feel it like it’s compulsory.”
While the basic workweek is 40 hours, many workers don’t put in for extra hours for fear of being given a bad performance evaluation. This has led to the concept of “service overtime” — “service” being Japanese for “free.”This relentless schedule has led to karoshi — either from a fatal heart attack or stroke, or a suicide triggered by overwork — becoming a recognized cause of death. Labor ministry figures show that 189 deaths were classified this way last year, although experts think the actual number is in the thousands.Karoshi has long been considered a male problem, but advocates say they’re seeing an increasing number of women dying, almost always by killing themselves.
The striking thing about them is that they’re very young, often in their 20s, said Hiroshi Kawahito, a lawyer and secretary-general of the National Defense Counsel for Victims of Karoshi, which fights for victims’ families.
Kawahito represented the family of a journalist in her early 30s who died of a heart attack. When a reporter gasped, he added: “It’s actually not rare in Japan for people in their early 30s to have heart attacks.”
Once a death is classified as karoshi, a victim’s family is automatically entitled to compensation through a kind of workers’ comp system. The number of claims for karoshi-related cases rose to a record high of 2,310 in the year ending in March, government figures show.But less than a third of applications are successful , Kawahito said.
Kiyotaka Serizawa’s death was officially certified last month. He was a supervisor responsible for overseeing building janitors in three separate locations in this town northeast of Tokyo.Struggling to keep up, Kiyotaka had tried to resign a year before his death, but his boss refused to accept his notice. Apparently concerned about inconveniencing his subordinates, he carried on working.
He would sometimes stop at his parents’ house to sleep as he drove between offices. “He would lie here on this couch and go into such a deep sleep that I would come and check on him to make sure his heart was still beating,” said his mother, Mitsuko Serizawa.
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The last time his mother saw him was July last year, when he came to collect the laundry he’d been too busy to do. He stopped off for 10 minutes and watched some cute cat videos on his phone with his cat-mad mother.
But then, on July 26, he went missing. Three weeks later, his body was found in his car in Nagano Prefecture, not far from a place where he’d gone on family camping holidays as a child. He’d burned briquettes in his car and died from carbon monoxide poisoning.Although karoshi has been a problem for several decades, it was only 18 months ago that the government passed legislation to try to tackle the problem.
The act sets specific targets, such as reducing the percentage of employees working for more than 60 hours a week to 5 percent by 2020, from the 8 to 9 percent range recorded in the past few years.
The government is also trying to get employees to actually take their paid vacation leave. Most Japanese workers get 20 days leave a year, but few take even half of that because of a working culture in which taking days off is seen as a sign of slacking or lack of commitment to the job.
The government hopes to entice workers to take at least 70 percent of their leave owed.
“If you’re conscious of this right, then you can show that there’s nothing wrong with taking time off,” said Yasukazu Kurio of the ministry of health and labor’s office for the prevention of karoshi. Kurio is trying to set a good example: Last year he took 17 of his 20 days.
Kawahito, the lawyer, said that the government’s efforts could have some impact at the margins but that they don’t deal with the fundamental problem.
“There’s nothing that’s stated under this act to penalize companies that break the rules,” said Kawahito, who’s not exactly a role model for work-life balance. As a younger lawyer, he used to work long hours, but now that he’s reached the age of 66, he’s cut back to about 60 hours a week.
Still, he wants to see a law like the European Working Time Directive that stipulates 11 hours off between shifts.
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The karoshi problem is exacerbated by the relative weakness of labor unions, which have been primarily concerned with raising wages rather than shortening working hours, and the Japanese practice of having a job for life. Most university students go into a company or a ministry after graduation with the expectation they’ll be there until they retire.“In a country like the U.S., people have more freedom to move to a company that treats you better,” said Kenichi Kuroda, a professor at Meiji University in Tokyo who specializes in labor culture. “But in Japan, people tend to stay at one company for life, so it’s difficult for people to move on.”
Some companies, especially in the financial sector, are taking the initiative by allowing employees to come in earlier and leave earlier. So instead of working from nine to nine, they’re now working from seven to seven and can be home in time to see their children.
“These companies are finding ways to bring about social change, and it could influence other companies by showing how they’re creating a ‘dream lifestyle,’” Kuroda said, laughing to show he knew 12-hour days would not be considered revolutionary elsewhere.Still, the problem is going to be difficult to alleviate.
Japan’s population is aging rapidly, with the workforce expected to shrink by at least a quarter by 2050. That means even fewer people available to work, increasing the workloads of those who remain.Morioka, the professor, said that eliminating death by overwork will mean changing the entire working culture of Japan.“It’s impossible to get rid of karoshi alone,” he said. “We need to change the overtime culture and create the time for family and hobbies. Long working hours are the root of all evil in Japan. People are so busy they don’t even have the time to complain.”
Yuki Oda contributed to this report.
‘Death from overwork’ is so common in Japan there’s even a word for it. But is it physically possible?

By Zaria Gorvett　13 September 2016
 The Japanese have a knack for inventing words – and there are some that every self-respecting office worker should have in their vocabulary. There’s arigata-meiwaku: when someone does you a favour that you didn’t ask them to – which actually caused you massive inconvenience – but you’re socially obliged to thank them anyway. Or how about majime: an earnest, dependable colleague who can get things done without causing any drama."But by 2015, claims of ‘death by overwork’ had risen to a record high of 2,310
But there’s one uniquely Japanese term you don’t want to relate to: karoshi, which translates as “death by overwork”.Reports of the nation’s corporate breadwinners, known as “salarymen”, dropping dead from overwork have been making But is it just urban legend?Well, no. The social phenomenon was first recognised in 1987, when the health ministry began logging cases after the sudden deaths of a string of high-flying executives.
"After the defeat of the Second World War, the Japanese worked the longest hours in the world by far – they were workaholics of the highest order - Cary Cooper
So widespread is the issue, that in Japan, if a death is judged karoshi, the victim’s family receives compensation from the government of around $20,000 per year and company payouts of up to $1.6 million.
Initially, the government was documenting a couple of hundred cases every year. But by 2015, claims had risen to a record high of 2,310, according to a report by the Japanese Labour Ministry. This may be the tip of the iceberg. According to the National Defence Council for Victims of Karoshi, the true figure may be as high as 10,000 – roughly the same number of people killed each year by traffic.But can you really die from overwork? Or is it just a case of old age and undiagnosed medical conditions? In an increasingly well-connected world, where technology keeps us in the loop 24-7, work hours are creeping up. Could karoshi be going on unrecognised elsewhere?
‘Death from overwork’
A typical case of karoshi goes something like this. Kenji Hamada was an employee at a Tokyo-based security company, with a devoted young wife and formidable work ethic. His typical week involved 15-hour days and a gruelling four-hour commute. Then one day he was found slumped over his desk; his colleagues assumed he was asleep. When he hadn’t moved several hours later, they realised he was dead. He had died of a heart attack at the age of 42.Though Hamada died in 2009, karoshi claimed its first victim 40 years earlier – when a healthy 29-year old suffered a stroke after pulling punishing shifts in the shipping department of the nation’s largest newspaper."At the bubble economy’s peak, nearly seven million people were grinding out a 60-hour work week
“After the defeat of the Second World War, the Japanese worked the longest hours in the world by far – they were workaholics of the highest order,” says Cary Cooper, a stress expert at Lancaster University.
In the post-war era, work provided men with a renewed sense of purpose; workers were not just financially – but psychologically – motivated. Businesses welcomed this new order and began funding labour unions, culture groups and company housing, transportation, recreation facilities, health clinics and childcare centres. Before long, work was the central life interest.
Decades later, in the mid-1980s, it took a dark turn. Abnormalities in the country’s economic system fuelled a rapid and unsustainable escalation in the prices of shares and real estate. The resulting economic growth spurt, known as the “bubble economy”, pushed Japan’s salarymen to their limits.At the bubble economy’s peak, nearly seven million people (around 5% of the country’s population at the time) were grinding out a 60-hour work week. Meanwhile, the US, UK and Germany were mostly still cruising along on a more forgiving nine-to-five work schedule.
"In 1989, 45.8% of section chiefs and 66.1% of department chiefs in major companies thought they themselves would die from overwork
According to a survey conducted in 1989, 45.8% of section chiefs and 66.1% of department chiefs in major companies thought they themselves would die from overwork.
By the late 1980s, enough white-collar workers were dying from overwork each year that the government began to pay attention. Karoshi became a matter of urgent public concern and the Ministry of Labour started publishing statistics.
To count as karoshi, victims must have worked more than 100 hours of overtime in the month before their death – or 80 hours of overtime in two or more consecutive months in the previous six.
When the economy’s bubble collapsed in the early 1990s, the culture of overwork only got worse. During the following years, known as the “lost decade”, karoshi reached epidemic proportions; deaths of those in management and professional roles spiked and it has never recovered.
The deaths of middle-aged men with underlying health conditions, such as heart disease or diabetes, would be one thing. The deaths of young, otherwise healthy people in their prime – doctors, university professors and engineers – are altogether more alarming.Can overwork be lethal?
Among the thousands of varied cases, two potential culprits stand out: stress and a lack of sleep. Can these things kill you? And how long do you have to spend in the office before you keel over?
"Among the thousands of varied cases, two potential culprits stand out: stress and a lack of sleep Going to work the day after pulling an all-nighter can certainly make you feel terrible. But, the evidence that a lack of sleep can kill you is surprisingly scarce.
While there’s plenty of evidence that a lack of sleep can kill you indirectly – through an increased risk of heart disease, disorders of the immune system, diabetes and some forms of cancer – no human death has ever been attributed to intentionally staying awake. It’s not going to be good for you in the long-term, but it seems unlikely you’ll spontaneously drop dead after an all-nighter in the office.
"The Guinness World Record for the longest period awake belongs to Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days) in 1964
The Guinness World Record for the longest period awake belongs to Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days) in 1964. On his final day, he attended a press conference where he spoke without slurring his words – then slept for 14 hours and 40 minutes. He’s still alive and lives in San Diego.And contrary to what you might expect, there’s currently no evidence that stress – on its own at least – can cause a heart attack or even heart disease either. Though it might lead you to bad habits (smoking, drinking, or a poor diet) which will.
But what if you include deaths from insidious illnesses such as cancer? It’s commonly thought that stress is lethal, but last year a team of Oxford University scientists decided to take a closer look. The so-called Million Women Study tracked the health of around 700,000 women for nearly a decade. In that time, 48,314 died.
When they analysed the data, the researchers found that women who rated themselves as more stressed and less happy, healthy and in control were more likely to die. But they were also less healthy to begin with – they were stressed because they were sick. When they factored this in, along with risky behaviours such as smoking, the link vanished. Stress and unhappiness had no correlation with the risk of death.It looks like even a really, really stressful day, month, or year in the office isn’t going to send an otherwise healthy person to an early grave."Intriguingly, karoshi might not be caused by stress or a lack of sleep, but time spent in the office
Intriguingly, karoshi might not be caused by stress or a lack of sleep, but time spent in the office. By analysing the habits and health records of more than 600,000 people, last year researchers found that those who worked a 55-hour week were a third more likely to suffer a stroke than those working fewer than 40 hours. It’s not known why, but the authors speculated it might simply be the result long periods sat at a desk.
The thing is, the Japanese don’t work the longest hours anymore. As of 2015, the average Japanese worker clocked less time than those in the United States – let alone the global leader of overwork, Mexico, where they toiled for a staggering 2246 hours.
As you would expect, reports of karoshi outside Japan are racking up. China loses around 600,000 people to guolaosi – as it is known locally – every year, around 1,600 every day.“India, South Korea, Taiwan, China – the next generation of emerging economies is doing the same thing, they are following the post-war Japanese movements towards long hours,” says Richard Wokutch from Virginia Tech, Virginia, a management Professor who has authored a book on occupational safety in Japan.
“Haven’t we had cases in the city of London? There’s just no word for it,” says Cooper. He’s right. In August 2013, Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt was found dead in his shower after working for 72 hours straight. The 21-year-old was found to have died from epilepsy, which could have been triggered by working so hard, an inquest was told. Following his death, the bank restricted the intern workday to 17 hours.
"In many countries part of the problem is not so much the culture of working hard, but being seen to be doing so
So could a culture of presentee-ism be to blame? According to Cooper, yes. In many countries part of the problem is not so much the culture of working hard, but being seen to be doing so. “Nowadays it’s more about showing facetime at work – arriving early and staying late – but it’s counterproductive,” he says.In Japan, many younger workers feel uncomfortable leaving before their bosses do. “When I was working over there, people would take out a newspaper at the end of the normal working day. They didn’t leave but – though they could have been reading the business section – they also weren’t exactly hard at work,” says Wokutch.
So the next time you find yourself at work, updating your status on social media or reading about absurdly specific Japanese words on the internet, remember: staying later might be a risky way to make up for it.
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