Karoshi: Japan's Culture of Overwork and the Road to Reform
Karoshi (過労死), meaning "death from overwork," is a uniquely Japanese term describing a preventable catastrophe that kills thousands of people each year. The phenomena gained public attention after the 1973 oil crisis, when workplace reorganisation resulted in reports of worker deaths, mostly from heart failure, strokes, and suicides, among professionals working 60-70 hours per week. What began as a 20th-century oddity has become a global phenomenon, with the World Health Organisation and the International Labour Organisation identifying overwork as accounting for around one-third of all occupational fatalities worldwide.
A major 2016 WHO/ILO research found that 745,000 people died from strokes and ischaemic heart disease as a direct result of working 55 or more hours per week. Despite decades of research, extended working hours were finally formally recognised as a serious health risk factor. In Japan, government records show about 200 karoshi claims per year, while advocacy groups estimate that the true mortality toll is around 10,000. The National Council's helpline receives between 100 and 300 enquiries each year from families seeking government compensation for work related stress, illness, or disability.
The Japanese government's response, while well-intentioned, has proven inadequate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 2018 "Work Style Reform" law mandated employers to ensure that employees took vacation time and introduced the first-ever overtime cap. However, the cap was set shockingly high: 80 hours per month, which, when combined with a regular 8-hour workday, results in an average 60-hour workweek—dangerously near to proven karoshi thresholds. The government even approved "special months" with up to 100 hours of overtime, thus saying, "You might die working this much, but it is legal." Employer consequences for infractions are virtually non-existent.
Japan's hierarchical, collectivist society exacerbates the problem. Employees hesitate from taking vacation because their managers do not, afraid that it may break "group harmony." The share of irregular workers has risen from 10% in 1990 to 40% today, generating precarious employment and increasing pressure. Remote and hybrid work modes, as well as the expansion of the gig economy, threaten to further erode work-life boundaries. Advocates contend that meaningful reform necessitates much lower overtime limitations, enforced rest times between shifts, and genuine corporate accountability—changes modelled after European Union laws that have successfully decreased workplace deaths.
