Japan's unemployment rate remains disturbingly high, as companies step up job-cutting efforts and bankruptcies increase. Although there are signs that the economy is recovering, there are no indications that the serious job shortage is easing. The Federation of Employers Associations, in recent negotiations with major labor unions on annual wage hikes, proposed a work-sharing program to create more jobs.
Management and labor have yet to agree on details of the work-sharing plan, but companies face mounting pressure to reduce overtime, especially unpaid overtime, to create more employment opportunities. Many management-track corporate employees work long hours without overtime pay, often out of loyalty to their employers or devotion to their jobs.
The horrors of unpaid overtime were exposed during recent court proceedings over a damage suit filed by the parents of a dead employee at the advertising giant Dentsu Ltd. The 24-year-old man worked marathon hours without overtime pay, through the night until 6:30 a.m. on some days, when he slept only two hours. Suffering from fatigue and depression, he committed suicide.