Government sets targets to tackle deaths by overwork
The government presented a draft outline of policies on prevention of death from overwork, or karoshi, to the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito on Tuesday.
The draft outline calls for raising the percentage of companies that support employees’ mental health from 60.7 percent in 2013 to 80 percent or more in 2017, with this being characterized as a key point in the outline. The government aims to have the outline approved by the Cabinet next month.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry compiled such an outline for the first time, based on the Law for Promotion of Measures to Prevent Death from Overwork and Other Reasons, brought into force last November. The draft outline includes numerical targets to promote shortening of working hours and improvement of working conditions.
The government also stipulates other goals with a target of fulfilling them by 2020, such as decreasing the number of employees who work 60 hours or more in a week from 8.8 percent in 2013 to 5 percent or less, while increasing the use of paid vacation days from 48.8 percent in 2013 to 70 percent or higher. The government plans to work harder to promote efforts toward these targets in firms after the outline is approved.
In fiscal 2013, 133 people were recognized as victims of work-related death, after dying of brain and heart diseases caused by overwork, with the figure exceeding 100 for the 12th consecutive year. Speech
