Japan Press Weekly

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2008 April 2 - 8 [LABOR]

Labor Standards Inspection Office recognizes Toshiba worker’s suicide as work-related

The Kumagaya District Labor Standards Inspection Office has recognized the suicide of a Toshiba worker at the Fukaya factory in Saitama Prefecture as caused by overwork.

The 31-year-old worker in 2000 was assigned to a project for setting up a line to produce liquid crystal displays. He worked from 8 a.m. till after midnight. In December 2001, he went missing and was later found dead.

During the one month before his death, he worked 154 hours of overtime, far more than the 120 hours per three months as the maximum agreed on between labor and management at the Fukaya factory.

Based on the worker’s wife’s diary, the local Labor Standards Inspection Office concluded that for more than six months before his death, the worker had been working about 100 hours of overtime a month” and acknowledged that he suffered from depression and committed suicide because of the overwork.

The worker’s wife said, “Workers must not be treated like machines. I ask Toshiba to accept the Labor Standards Inspection Office recognition and improve the work place environment for other workers so that my husband’s death was not in vain.”

The lawyer for the wife, Kawahito Hiroshi said, “The labor standards inspection office must give Toshiba strict guidance to take steps to prevent further deaths from overwork.”
- Akahata, April 2, 2008