Japan to Boost Efforts to Prevent Overwork-Related Deaths

May 31, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's labor ministry plans to set the goal of raising the proportion of companies with a so-called work interval system to 10 pct or higher in 2020 in an effort to prevent deaths from overwork, it was learned Thursday.

Under the system, workers are granted a certain interval between the end of work and the next time they are back to their work.

The ministry will also aim to lower the share of companies with no knowledge about the system to under 20 pct.

The goals were included in a draft revision to an outline of measures to prevent such deaths, approved at a meeting of an expert panel comprising representatives from both labor and management, as well as bereaved families of workers who died from overwork.

At the meeting, a labor representative said the numerical targets should be adopted from the standpoint of preventing deaths from overwork. A family member called for government efforts to make the details of the system widely known.

The Japanese government adopted the current outline at a cabinet meeting in 2015 and decided to review it in three years.

The numerical targets on the interval system in the draft cover businesses with 30 employees or more.

The work interval system is believed to be one of the most effective measures against deaths from overwork, but a 2017 survey showed that only 1.4 pct of the companies had introduced the system.

The survey also showed that 40.2 pct of the companies were not aware of the interval system.

The draft designated workers with long working hours, including drivers, teachers and employees in the medical and media industries, as needing special attention in order to prevent overwork-related deaths.

It newly called for measures to create a better working environment for young workers.

Noting that power and sexual harassment can lead to death from overwork, the draft said the government should promote activities to raise awareness for the problem to prevent and resolve such harassment, while studying countermeasures.

A revised outline is expected to be adopted at a cabinet meeting in summer after a public comment period. Jiji Press