OSAKA — The Osaka District Court on Monday recognized the death of a policeman as having resulted from work, overturning a decision by the Osaka branch of an accident compensation body for public servants that his father was not eligible to receive compensation.
The district court ruled that the Osaka Prefectural Police officer died of an ischemic heart disease caused by nearly seven months of overwork at the age of 24 in July 1993.
The chief of the compensation body's Osaka branch refused to acknowledge the death of the policeman as having resulted from his duties and refused to pay compensation from the employee's accident insurance when his father applied for it in September 1993.
Presiding Judge Tetsuo Matsumoto acknowledged the causal link between the man's death and his work, saying, "Police officers' duties require very arduous psychological and physical labor."
"The working hours of the plaintiff's son were not in accordance with the work manuals before his death and he had built up stress from his work as he was very conscientious about it," the judge said.
According to the ruling, the son started work as a policeman with the Osaka Prefectural Police in April 1991 and was dispatched to a local police substation in March 1993.
He collapsed at the station and died July 24, 1993, while questioning a person involved in a theft case.
His father applied for compensation from the redress agency, claiming his son's death was incurred as a result of his duties.
The ruling said the son had only four days off work between January and July 1993, and that in June 1993 he was dispatched to Tokyo for guard duty during the Group of Eight nations' summit there.
In addition, he did not have any disease that could have caused his death, it said.