Filed under: Etc., Toyota, Japan
Lead Camry hybrid engineer died from working too hard
Since the Japanese Health Ministry first recognized Karoshi (literally death from too much work) in 1987, the number of claims has steadily increased. In fact, in the year between March of 2006 and 2007, there were 303 claims of Karoshi made, with 147 of those cases acknowledged as accurate by the government. Those are some sobering statistics, and the auto industry in Japan is certainly not immune to the problem. An unnamed man who was a lead engineer on the Camry hybrid project from Toyota died from overwork in January of 2006, according to a recent ruling by the Health Ministry. The forty-five year old man is said to have worked eighty hours of overtime per month, including nights and weekends. He died from heart disease the day before he was scheduled to leave for the U.S. as part of the team preparing for the Detroit Auto Show.Toyota, for its part, has acknowledged the ruling and says it will work on improving the monitoring of its employees. This latest case will certainly lend some credence for some regarding the recent allegations of workers rights abuses by Toyota, though it is impossible for us to accurately say whether or not the auto giant is directly responsible for the man's death.
[Source: AP via Yahoo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wildgoosechase73 8:29PM (7/09/2008)
This borders on slave labor.
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Herkimer 8:57PM (7/09/2008)
I don't buy it.
Try starting your own business or running a farm. (I would love to cut down to just 60 hours a week.)
Whenever people keel over prematurely, it's a tragedy, but I doubt 20 hours of overtime a week is enough to do it.
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Luke 9:07PM (7/09/2008)
Make of it what you wish. How else can a country with no natural resources become as wealthy as Japan? Shear will power. The man selected the carrot he was willing to chase. Yes, Toyota should have changed a few things once it entered the modern era, but that's hindsight. Japan wasn't much of a country after WWII, and not much too much before that. Everyone that lives in a 3rd world country that has no resources knows what I'm talking about, and the rest can sit in their chairs and practice philosophy.
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Luke 9:12PM (7/09/2008)
"Try starting your own business or running a farm. (I would love to cut down to just 60 hours a week.)"
Good point. As a self-employed person, I'd feel spoiled.
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Wes 10:12PM (7/09/2008)
Oh weird I thought there was a camry made out of lead when I first read the title. I guess that'd be hard work.
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ryan 6:05AM (7/10/2008)
I work for a large Japanese automotive parts company in Japan. I can say, from experience (including my own, personal), that overtime is a fact of life in Japan. Even middle school children are subject to it.
Those who mentioned that mere 12 hour days are nothing, and that he got off easy. Truth is, he was probably working WAAAAY more than that. There is a thing called "service overtime" here, where workers work for free. They are shamed into doing this, as everyone else does, and believe me, you don't want to be the first guy out the door. You can't believe the icy stares you would get. No, this engineer guy probably would have been better off bringing his futon in to work with him and just living at his company.
Companies actually set themselves up so that people can do just this. My company has a pretty much 24 hour cafeteria, though we don't have showers quite yet.
So, coming from someone who has lived and worked in Japan for 3 some odd years, this IS a big problem, and it is finally coming to the headlines. Forced paid overtime (ie, don't let workers work for free) is becoming more accepted these days.
Oh, and Luke was right on... Japanese people have nothing other than drive going for them. They only rose to the level that they are at now because they had the will to succeed. That usually translates to working your hands to the bone.
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Bryan 8:33AM (7/10/2008)
Some of those deaths might be related to the United State's industries of fast food. The article said the cause was heart disease. Working overtime probably increased stress, reduced the opportunities for exercise, and created the need for quick meals.
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brn 8:57AM (7/10/2008)
Yes Brian, it's the United State's fault. Our plan has finally come to fruition.
To others. I think we're picking this apart. The truth is that many Americans work unpaid "overtime". I myself have gone years, working 80 hours per week, with no extra pay. Japanese work unpaid "overtime" and this may be an example. Which is worse? Who knows? The key is that it can be a problem anywhere.
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Steve 12:14PM (7/10/2008)
From what I recall being reported at Jalopnik a few months ago, this was /unpaid/ overtime... Working unpaid overtime is a way Japanese workers demonstrate loyalty to their employer. Personally, I'm inclined to consider such intense servitude to be a cultural illness; but who are we, as outsiders, to cast judgement on aspects of another culture.?
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Luke 3:43PM (7/10/2008)
In the state of Wisconsin the law says that anyone working more than 40 hours must be compensated unless they manage themselves. In other words, almost any professional position is considered exempt. Most people I know work 60+ hours. A friend of mine owns a plant in Brookfield. All the professionals there work 10-12 hour days, including a lot of Saturdays. The founder of the company, my friends father, worked 6 days a week, 12-16 hours a day until he was 70 years old. I'm self-employed and work just as much as he did.
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Luke 3:44PM (7/10/2008)
One more thing, just ask anyone who works for GE how much they work. They make anyone look lazy.
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Avinash machado 11:33AM (7/13/2008)
This might change the working culture in Japan.
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