NEWSWORTHY
Abe's work-style reforms give Japan's employers the green light to demand unpaid and unsafe overtime
New law caps overtime at unhealthy levels and sets up a system that will legitimize the principle of working for nothing.
Labor reform law nudges corporate Japan to rethink working styles
Working late, falling asleep on trains due to exhaustion and getting drunk to release tension from work might still be the typical image of the "salaryman." This country is notorious for a culture of overwork. Employees who stay late are still praised for hard work ...
Diet enacts key labor reform that opposition slams as 'karōshi promotion' bill
The bill ushers in a legally binding overtime cap and exempts skilled white-collar employees from work-time regulations.
Efforts to combat the overwork of corporate employees must not end with the introduction of a few new regulations.
Second jobs, once rare in Japan, are reshaping attitudes about work
Kazuhiro Hasegawa has been driving a taxi in Tokyo for three years. It's a job he enjoys, despite 18-hour shifts. But recently, he said, it has not been enough to make ends meet. The ¥4.5 million to ¥4.8 million a year he makes from his primary ...
Japan's ruling bloc pushes labor bill through the Lower House amid worries over karōshi
The government says the comprehensive legal package will represent the biggest shake-up of labor laws in Japan’s postwar history, but some believe it could make problems worse.
Japan sets goals for companies to prevent deaths from overwork
Workers will benefit from a guaranteed interval between each day’s work and the next, but the plan did not specify how long the break must be.
Tokyo considers extending Diet session until late June or early July to pass labor and casino bills
The government and the ruling bloc are considering extending the current Diet session to the end of June or early July to secure the passage of a bill on labor reform and another on casinos, lawmakers from the ruling parties said Tuesday. They also decided ...
TV Asahi drama producer's 2015 death was due to overwork, sources reveal
A TV Asahi drama producer's 2015 death due to heart failure was determined by labor authorities later that year to be caused by overwork, sources close to the matter revealed Wednesday. A local labor standards office found the producer, who was in his 50s, had ...
Tokyo worker died from overwork after switch to discretionary labor system, lawyer says
A 28-year-old worker at a Tokyo-based system development company died from overwork in August 2017, about a month after he began to work under the contentious discretionary work system, an attorney representing his family has said. He worked for 36 consecutive hours shortly after switching ...
Planned cut in doctors' overtime hours worries Japan's rural hospitals
As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration pushes to pass labor reform bills in the current Diet session, many major hospitals in the Chubu region are concerned that the bills, which include a cap on the working hours of doctors, could lead to a deterioration ...
Japan labor authorities say death of worker at Renesas unit was linked to overwork
The man died of a heart attack in 2017 after working an average of 80 extra hours per month in the four months before his death.
