Over 500 Employees in Japan Suffer Work-Caused Mental Diseases

July 6, 2018

Tokyo- The number of employees in Japan who were officially recognized as suffering from work-caused depression and other mental disorders exceeded 500 for the first time ever in fiscal 2017, the labor ministry said Friday.

The total stood at 506, up eight from the preceding year, the ministry said in a report on compensation for work-related injuries in fiscal 2017, which ended in March.

Of the total, those who committed or attempted to commit suicide numbered 98, up 14 from fiscal 2016 and the next highest to 99 in fiscal 2014, the ministry said.

The number of people who attributed work quality and quantity, such as long work hours, to their disorders rose by five to 154 and that of those blaming workplace personal relations, including harassment by bosses, increased by 12 to 112.

"Countermeasures should be taken now," a ministry official in charge of work-related diseases said.

The report also pointed out that 151 people worked at least 100 hours of overtime per month on average and 49 people of them at least 160 hours, exceeding the below-100-hour cap introduced under revised labor-related laws enacted late last month.

Of the total workers recognized as job-caused metal disease sufferers, 87 were in the manufacturing sector, 82 in medical and welfare services, 65 in wholesale and retail businesses and 62 in the transportation and postal industry.

The number of applications for workers' compensation jumped 146 to 1,732, hitting a record high for the fifth straight year.

Meanwhile, the number of newly recognized sufferers of brain or heart diseases dropped seven to 253, of whom 92, down 15, died for overwork. Such suffers and deaths totaled 99 and 40, respectively, in the transportation and postal sector, nearly three times the 35 and 15 in the wholesale and retail industry, the runner-up. Jiji Press