Andrew Connor

In December 2007, the Japanese government announced that it would not appeal the Nagoya District Court's verdict in an important labor lawsuit against Toyota Motors. The ruling awarded a settlement to the family of a Toyota worker, Mr. Kenichi Uchino, who died on the job in 2002 after working at least 80 hours of overtime per month for six consecutive months. Mr. Uchino, who died at age 30, was a Quality Control Manager for Toyota.<br /> <br />The court's decision in this spotlight case is expected to place increased pressure on firms in Japan to change their policies toward "free overtime. Although official statistics place Japan's average working hours per year per person at around 1,780 (close to the US average of 1,800), this figure does not include unpaid overtime. One recent survey showed that half of Japanese workers interviewed said that they were not paid for overtime. Another survey showed that around one third of men in their thirties work more than 60 hours per week in Japan. <br /> <br />The concept of "death by overwork has become so commonplace in Japan that the Japanese have coined their own term for it - karoshi. This was first legally recognized as a cause of death in Japan in 1980, but claims against companies and settlements in favor of victims have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2007, nearly 150 cases were deemed karoshi by Japanese courts. Some analysts estimate that more than 1,000 additional cases could have been so designated if brought to court. <br /> <br />By law, the families of victims of karoshi are awarded around $20,000 USD per year by the Japanese government. Additional settlements with some companies have sometimes exceeded $1 million. After the recent decision in the case of Mr. Uchino, many companies are expected to re-evaluate their overtime policies, paying for additional hours worked and cutting back on weekend and late-night work requirements.