Japan struggles with death by overwork

A Japanese phenomenon known as "Karoshi," which means "death from overwork," is affecting many young men and women in Japan. Almost 2,000 people in the country committed suicide for reasons related to their job in 2016. Lucy Craft reports from Tokyo.

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[yeshuasage]

An early night was leaving at 9 pm?
What a terrible existence

[kakusei]

Instead of seeing homeless sleeping on the streets you see businessmen.

[susanraezer]

I'm not surprised by the suicides. Their life consisted of work, and not enough sleep. An 8 hour shift is enough. People deserve time to pursue their own passions. Without that, why bother?

[saionjisan]

I remember when I was working 15 hours a day with just one day for rest....it was crazy!! I was jsut a zombie at that time so left my two jobs after 4 months and now my dad keeps telling me that i dont do enough. He works 6 hours a day and he is telling me that?! wtf! Im not going to listen to him anymore, I will work at my own pace.

[nikkiavorque]

Japanese are not robots. They are humans. They need to rest..

[hiteshparashar]

This is actually true. I have a friend in Japan who tells me that there is a strong show off culture in Japan that an employee loves his company more than anything else. They are required to be in the office at least 1 hour earlier than when their shift starts, and expected to stay back for 1-2 hours after it ends, even if there is no work. One who fails to do that is seen as a lazy, non-committed and non loyal employee and could be asked to leave the job. The madness goes to the extreme, that when they complete their given assignment of the day, and when they finally submit it, then they are even required to add a foot note somewhere stating that they felt really about been given that work and they feel proud of doing it.

The point is - who the heck does that? This is pure madness and useless actions. Irony is every worker knows that the other person is lying about writing things that footnote or showing fake commitment by staying back long hours, then why follow this stupid culture anyway?

[projetor.m.]

Living a life like this, I would prefer to be dead.

[grow]

Probably one of the best countries for travel, One of the worst countries to live in. Japan.

[youngblackking]

An 8 hour shift is too much and absolutely ridiculous, so Japan's work hours are ludicrous.

[dorkysaur]

That is why Japanese want to live here in Australia. Work and life balance here is amazing plus Australians are beautiful human beings.

[iamlekat]

To my perspective, seeing people sleeping on the street or anywhere in Japan n Korea is very normal because we know we're not the only one who's overworking but then again it's very very bad. You can say that some are too busy working instead of living life😔that's why some goes to bar to drink their stress away then start that life all over again, again, again (sigh) to where they're gonna think about suicide is the best choice for them😵 I live Japan and working here is VERY STRESSFUL. Like you study hard to get into high school then you gotta study hard to get into college. Afterwards you work hard to get an interview and when you do get the job ha you gotta work hard just to impress your boss. You work to live, not live to work. It's a sad life💔 the system NEEDS TO CHANGE.

[jamesmadison]

if you work yourself to death then, your not living life. they got to at least give them brakes and holidays off, time forthemselves.

[MyThoughtzAndOpinionz]

It’s been proven that most people start losing productivity after 6 hours of work.

[IGNOUBLISCLISMLISBellLibrary]

What is use of development when people are working hard & unhappy?

[yanami]

Meanwhile in europe you don't have to work at all if you don't want it.

[vampisolvampisol]

Tht really sucks.... they even habe a suicide patrol. So you can imagine how serious this is.

[wilsontheknight]

Who would have thought that over working people could lead to increase suicidal ideations and actions! I’m glad that mans son can Rest In Peace and not be shamed for not working as hard.

[blackvelvet]

my parents left Japan because of this issue they didn't want their kids to be stressed till 8:00 pm at school then work would be even more stressful and I'm still thankful I don't have to live through what they lived through

[liecretsev]

Meanwhile in my company i got too bored because there's no work to do. I've always managed to complete it either on time (because I'm saving it) or complete it way earlier. The trick is that, never tell your boss your actual work progress. If you do, the next time they put a timeline on your task, it will be much shorter. Prioritize on yourself before the company itself. Because, you can still get promoted, and making progress in your career despite delaying your work as much as you can (without over-extending your timeline).

[INCOGNITO-iqqy]

"Government's proposal to cap overtime at 100 hours a month" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah i bet that'll change things HAHAHAHAHA.