The relatives of a Chinese man who died of heart failure last year sought compensation Friday at a local labor standards inspection office, claiming his long working hours as a trainee at a plating company in Ibaraki Prefecture killed him.
The alleged case of karōshi, or death by overwork, is the first in Japan to seek damages for the death of a foreign trainee, a group of lawyers dealing in such issues said.
Jiang Xiaodong, from Jiangsu Province, died in his sleep in a dormitory in June last year at the age of 31. He came to Japan in December 2005 on a vocational training program.