Gov’t finally admits overwork death of Nomura real estate worker

April 11, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government on Tuesday finally admitted the overwork death of a Nomura Real Estate Development Co. worker in 2016, more than a month after a media report on the matter.

Labor minister Katsunobu Kato gave the confirmation at a press conference, after the bereaved family last week notified his ministry of its consent for the disclosure of the incident, exposed by the report on March 5.

The worker in his 50s killed himself in September 2016 after developing a psychological disorder due to overwork. He worked on fixed-overtime terms under the country's so-called discretionary work system.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aimed to include an expansion of the system in its work style reform legislation, but was forced to abandon this amid controversy over data flaws in a related labor ministry survey.

The worker's overwork death was recognized by labor authorities on Dec. 26, 2017, the day after the authorities issued a special instruction to Nomura Real Estate over its inappropriate use of the discretionary work system.

The Tokyo bureau of the labor ministry announced the special instruction on Dec. 26, without mentioning the death of the worker.

Following the revelation of the overwork death, however, opposition lawmakers argued that the bereaved family's filing for the official recognition of the overwork death may have prompted the authorities to issue the special instruction. Jiji Press