Ministry raids Dentsu offices
WORKER’S SUICIDE: Officials looking for evidence ad firm violated laws relating to overtime hours
TOKYO
DENTSU Inc offices were raided yesterday by labour ministry officials looking for evidence that the advertising firm’s employees exceeded legal limits on overtime hours, after a worker’s suicide drew national attention to one of the country’s largest and most prestigious companies.
Dentsu would cooperate fully with the probe, said a spokesman for Japan’s biggest ad agency, Shusaku Kannan, yesterday.
The government would pursue a criminal complaint if evidence was found that the company violated laws related to overtime hours, said a labour ministry official.
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga highlighted the Dentsu case in a regular briefing with reporters yesterday, saying the advertising agency would be dealt with appropriately and that the government was working on labour law reforms to prevent deaths from overwork.
The suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old employee of the ad agency, on Christmas day last year, brought renewed attention to the kind of work conditions that have been blamed previously for workers taking their own life at companies including major restaurant chains.
Dentsu said last week it was setting up an internal committee headed by chief executive officer Tadashi Ishii to eliminate death by overwork.
“Enforcement of working hours laws is getting stricter,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co.
“Big restaurant chains like Watami and Sukiya have been probed in the past for overwork and now the spotlight is on Dentsu.”
Fifty firms, including Daiwa Securities Group Inc and Seven & I Holdings Co, have signed a pact on the cabinet’s website saying they are committed to ending excessive work hours.
Dentsu, which calls itself the world’s largest brand agency and third-biggest for media, controls 25 per cent of Japan’s market. Bloomberg