The young Japanese reporter who worked herself to death
A YOUNG journalist’s gruelling work schedule – including a single month with 159 hours of overtime and just two days off – triggered the heart failure that killed her at age 31, Japanese labour regulators ruled.
Authorities officially attributed Miwa Sado’s death to “karoshi” – the Japanese word for a death due to overwork – according to information released this week by NHK, the public broadcaster that employed her.
Sado, a political reporter, had been covering elections for Tokyo’s government and the national parliament in the months leading up to her death in 2013. She died three days after the elections for Japan’s upper house.
NHK had not released information that regulators had compiled about the death until lastweek.
The determination that Sado’s death was caused by overworking has brought renewed scrutiny to the working culture in Japan, where hundreds, if not thousands of people are believed to work themselves to death every year.
One official with the public broadcaster told reporters that her death was indicative of “problem for our organisation as a whole, including the labor system and how elections are covered.”
Japan’s working culture, where long hours and after-work social engagements are typical, dates back decades, as The Post’s Anna Fifield has reported:
“It began in the 1970s, when wages were relatively low and employees wanted to maximise their earnings.
It continued through the boom years of the 1980s, when Japan became the world’s secondlargest 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.
“‘ 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.’
The country classified 189 deaths from overwork in 2015 – 93 suicides and 96 from heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses related to overwork – though experts believe the actual number may be much higher.
In addition to long hours, vacation days routinely go unused: On average, employees used less than half of their leave time in 2015 – about nine days a year, according to the Guardian. — WP-Bloomberg