Work Style Reform Talks Speed Up after Dentsu Suicide Case

Tokyo, Dec. 25 (Jiji Press)–The death a decade ago of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old rookie employee of Japanese ad giant Dentsu Inc., who committed suicide due to overwork, accelerated discussions on reforms of working practices in Japan. The incident led to the enactment of work style reform-related legislation, which set an upper limit on overtime. But the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October, is considering relaxing work hour regulations, prompting workers to oppose the attempt. Yukimi Takahashi, 62, the mother of Matsuri, unveiled in October 2016 the circumstances that led to her daughter’s death and the fact that her suicide was recognized to have been related to work. After joining Dentsu in April 2015, Matsuri continued working excessive hours far beyond the level agreed on between the labor and management sides. Her monthly overtime once reached about 105 hours. Her boss reprimanded her, saying, “Your overtime hours are a waste for the company.” Matsuri developed depression and killed herself on Dec. 25, 2015. Before her death, Matsuri posted on Twitter, now X, “Staying at the workplace for 20 hours a day makes me wonder for what purpose I live” and “The amount of work that prevents me from sleeping for days is totally wrong.” The circumstances surrounding her death shocked society and increased calls for redressing excessive work hours. After raiding Dentsu’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward over the case, the labor ministry’s Tokyo Labor Bureau sent papers on Dentsu and a senior company official in December 2016 for making her work illegally long hours. Then Dentsu President Tadashi Ishii resigned to take the blame. In a ruling issued in October 2017, Tokyo Summary Court ordered Dentsu to pay a fine of 500,000 yen. At the time, the government, as an urgent task, was making efforts to promote work style reforms that allow many ways to work amid the country’s dwindling population. In his policy speech at the Diet, Japan’s parliament, in January 2017, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touched on Matsuri’s death and pledged to tackle the issue of long work hours with a determination never to repeat the tragedy. The work style reform-related legislation, enacted in June 2018, set an overtime cap for the first time, limiting extra work hours below 100 hours a month and at or below 720 hours a year, with violators subject to penalties. In October this year, however, Takaichi instructed the government to consider easing work hour regulations. The issue is being discussed at a labor ministry panel. But bereaved relatives of people who died from overwork as well as corporate employees are strongly opposed to the move, saying that it reverses work style reforms. In fiscal 2024, a record 1,304 incidents, including those that led to deaths, suicides and diseases, were recognized to be associated with work, according to the ministry. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]