Men in managerial positions or professional occupations in Japan have a higher mortality rate than their counterparts in Europe, according to a scientific study published in late May.

The study was conducted on men who were aged between 35 and 64 during the period from 1990 to 2015 in Japan, South Korea and eight European countries including Denmark and Switzerland, by a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo and European institutes.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, said that the mortality rate of "upper nonmanual workers" increased in Japan in the second half of the 1990s following the collapse of the asset-inflated bubble economy. The trend was possibly due to changes in their social and work environments — such as having to work in dual roles, as a manager and a worker, following restructuring, for example, according to the report.