Duration Archives - understand-culture

Death from Overwork

Karōshi (過労死) means death from overwork. In 1988, as deaths of overworked employees kept occurring, a telephone hotline opened, the Karōshi 110-ban, where lawyers and others gave advice. In 2002, the word entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

In June 2014, Japan enacted the Act on Promotion of Measures to Prevent Karōshi. Its first article states that karōshi has become frequent in Japan and a serious social problem. The act defines it as death from cerebrovascular or heart disease caused by an excessive workload, or suicide caused by a mental disorder brought on by strong stress at work. It also covers these illnesses themselves.

Can You Fight 24 Hours?

In 1988, at the height of the bubble economy, the drug company Sankyo launched the energy drink Regain. Its television commercials asked 24 jikan tatakaemasu ka, can you fight 24 hours? The commercial song of 1989, Yūki no shirushi (The Sign of Courage), cheered on Japanese businessmen traveling the world, to a tune like a military march.

In 1989, the phrase won a bronze prize at the New Words and Buzzwords Awards. In 1999, Regain changed its line to subete no tsukarete iru hito e, to everyone who is tired.

The Teachers’ Allowance

Under a law of 1971, teachers at Japanese public schools receive a teaching adjustment allowance, the kyōshoku chōseigaku, equal to 4 percent of their basic pay. They receive no overtime or holiday pay. The allowance is paid instead. Critics call the system teigaku hatarakase hōdai, all-you-can-work for a fixed price.

In 2025, the Diet passed an amendment. It raises the allowance by one point a year, to 10 percent by 2031. It is the first increase since the law took effect in 1972.

Premium Friday

On February 24, 2017, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry launched Premium Furaidē, Premium Friday. On the last Friday of each month, work was to end at 3 p.m., with no overtime.

The research company Intage surveyed about 2,200 working men and women aged 20 to 59 in the Tokyo area from February 24 to 27. It found that 3.7 percent had left early on the first Premium Friday.

No-Overtime Day

Some Japanese companies set one day a week as nō zangyō dē, no-overtime day. In a 2016 survey by the Fukuoka Labor Bureau, 148 of the 217 responding companies in the prefecture, 68 percent, had one. About 80 percent of them had chosen Wednesday, the day the Cabinet Office recommends.

Seventeen Innings

In a 1998 quarterfinal of the national high school baseball tournament at Kōshien, Yokohama beat PL Gakuen in 17 innings. Yokohama’s ace, Matsuzaka Daisuke, threw 250 pitches.

From the spring tournament of 2018, Kōshien introduced a tiebreak. From the 13th inning, each team began its turn at bat with runners on first and second base and no outs. The start of the tiebreak was later moved to the 10th inning.

The Vocabulary of Overtime

Zangyō (残業): literally, remaining work. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as staying on to work after the set working hours, and the work done then.

Shūden (終電): the last train of the day on a line. A dictionary of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics gives the example zangyō ga tsuzuite, mainichi shūden o riyō shite iru, with overtime day after day, I take the last train every day.

Tetsuya (徹夜): staying up the whole night. The Daijisen example is tetsuya shite ronbun o shiageru, to stay up all night and finish a paper.

The 2024 Problem

From April 2024, overtime for Japanese truck drivers was capped at 960 hours a year. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare warned that logistics could stagnate. It cited an estimate that, without countermeasures, transport capacity could fall 34 percent short by 2030.

The 36 Agreement

Under Article 36 of Japan’s Labor Standards Act, an employer may require overtime only after a written agreement with a representative of the majority of workers, filed with the labor standards office. It is called the saburoku kyōtei, the 36 agreement.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare explains that until the reform that took effect in April 2019 for large companies, the upper limit for such overtime had no penalty behind it. A special clause in the agreement allowed overtime with no upper limit at all.

The Ten Demon Rules

The Oni jissoku, the Ten Demon Rules of the advertising company Dentsu, were set down in 1951 by Yoshida Hideo, its fourth president. The fifth rule reads: Torikundara hanasu na, korosarete mo hanasu na, mokuteki kansui made wa. “Once you take hold, do not let go. Do not let go even if it kills you, until the goal is reached.”

In December 2015, Takahashi Matsuri, a new employee aged 24, took her own life after long overwork. In July 2017, Gendai reported that from that fiscal year, the rules were no longer printed in the employee handbook.