Death by overwork in Japan 过劳死在日本
Jobs for life一生悬命
Dec 19th 2007 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition
Japanese employees are working themselves to death
日本职员死工作
HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi, “death by overwork”. Since this was legally recognised as a cause of death in the 1980s, the number of cases submitted to the government for the designation has soared; so has the number of court cases that result when the government refuses an application. In 1988 only about 4% of applications were successful. By 2005 that share had risen to 40%. If a death is judged karoshi, surviving family members may receive compensation of around $20,000 a year from the government and sometimes up to $1m from the company in damages. For deaths not designated karoshi the family gets next to nothing.
切腹是日本人独特的自杀方式。它的企业版则是过劳死，即“死于加班”。自80年代法律承认了过劳死是一种死因，提交给政府要求鉴别的案例数量飙升；同样的还有政府拒绝申请后的诉讼。在1988年，仅有大约4%的申请成功。到2005年，这个比例上升到40%。倘若鉴定为过劳死，幸存的家庭成员可以每年从政府领到约2万美元的补偿，有时还可以从公司拿到高达一百万美元赔偿。而不被认为是过劳死的死者家属几乎什么也得不到。