Japanese Workers Are Literally Slaving More Than 80 Hours of Overtime A Week

October 7, 2016

Nearly a quarter of Japanese employees worked an additional 80 hours or more each week, the government has found.

The study polled 19,583 employees from 1,743 companies between December 2015 and January 2016. It found that 23% of them endured 80 and more hours of overtime work each week.

Among that 23%, 11% rendered 80 to 100 hours of overtime work, while 12% spent more than 100 hours.

Eighty hours is the threshold at which the risk of death from overwork, also known as “karoshi”, becomes significant.

Karoshi is common among males and sees increasing cases among females. It can result from heart attacks, strokes or even suicide triggered by overworking.

Interestingly, the paper also found that workers from the information and communications industry exceeded the threshold most (44.4%), Nikkei Asian Review noted. The sector is followed by research and specialized technological services (40.5%) and transportation and postal services (38.4%).

It’s the first-ever government report that looked into the country’s infamous issue of overworking, Sputnik said.

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