Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takachi has long cited Margaret Thatcher as one of his political idols.
The former, long-serving British prime minister was a staunch conservative with strongly held opinions on economic policy, national security, immigration and countless other center-right positions shared by Takachi.
Famously, the late British Prime Minister’s reputation was built in part on his remarkable ability to work and his insistence that he needed only four hours of sleep a night.
Takaichi is equally loathe to put his foot down and has indicated that he expects the same level of commitment from his ministers and the Japanese working population – and that is ringing alarm bells in some circles.
After being named prime minister last month, Takachi announced that she wanted to “abandon the term ‘work-life balance’ for myself. I will work, work, work and work.”
Late night meetings increase anxiety
True to his word, Takachi summoned his key aides to his office for a 3 a.m. meeting earlier this month ahead of a budget committee meeting that began at 9 a.m.
She then admitted that she sleeps “about two hours now, four hours max” every night. “It’s probably bad for my skin,” he quipped.
Takaichi also asked his labor minister to consider relaxing restrictions on overtime work — which are set maximum 720 hours One year – to stimulate economic growth.
Tomoko Yoshino, the first female head of Rengo, Japan’s largest labor union group, said the figure was already close to the limit that increases the risk of “karoshi”, the Japanese word meaning death from overwork.
Lawyers fight against excessive working hours
“We cannot allow the upper limit to be lowered,” Yoshino told reporters in Tokyo. “We are still only halfway through bringing ‘karoshi’ to zero and pushing for work-style reforms.”
That position was echoed by a group of lawyers who represent families of people who died from “karoshi”, with the group issuing a statement saying the prime minister’s comments were “not helpful” in a country that has long been notorious for a culture of excessive working hours.
The statement from the National Defense Counsel for Karoshi’s victims called on Takaichi to stop efforts to reverse recent progress in creating a more healthy work-life balance and to retract the “extreme” comments.
A record 1,304 cases of overwork-related deaths and health disorders were reported in Japan in the 2024 fiscal year — up 196 year over year, according to Japanese government data.
Of the total, 1,057 were work-related mental health disorders – including “abuse of power by superiors or others” and “customer harassment”.
Concerns about toxic work culture
Even some of Takaichi’s ministers have expressed concern, with Health Minister Takamaro Fukuoka saying that the ministry “believes that no one’s life or health should be lost due to overwork.”
Teppei Kasai, an official at Human Rights Watch in Tokyo, suggested that the issue is also a human rights matter.
“I don’t think this is an exclusively Japanese phenomenon, as many other countries have toxic workplace cultures and norms,” he said.
“That being said, Japan’s corporate culture places more emphasis on presenteeism rather than productivity, which may lead to employees feeling obligated to come to work even if they are sick or know they won’t be productive for some other reason,” he told DW.
And while there have been some positive developments in workplace culture in Japan since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, there are concerns that pressures on workers could once again increase, leading to a new surge in “karoshi” cases, depression or suicides linked to workplace pressure.
United Nations standards on working hours
Butcher says Japan should follow guidelines Published by the United Nations in 2016 on working conditions, which states in part that states should “set minimum standards that must be respected and cannot be refused or reduced on the basis of economic or productivity arguments.”
Butcher explained, “It is important to note that everyone is entitled to rest every week as part of fair and favorable working conditions, which means no employee should be able to ‘choose’ a 90-hour working week.”
“It is also important to understand that regulating working hours may increase the risk of labor exploitation for people in some sectors.”
Prime Minister Takachi has once again put Japan’s long working hours in the spotlight, but the debate has been fueled by several salarymen and women sharing 18-hour workdays on social media platforms.
Hero is the author of Japanese typical salaryman channel on youtube and InstagramWith posts titled “Broke before getting paid,” “A week in corporate despair” and “The 65-hour week in Japan.”
In the YouTube episode “Every Day is Hell”, Hiro describes the loneliness and exhaustion caused by working in the Japanese city of Osaka and finds solace in food. The reactions from audiences around the world have been telling.
“I hope one day you get better employment and stay in good health for a long time,” one wrote, while another viewer said, “You are [an] amazing man. I have been watching your videos since yesterday. I want [you] Best wishes please keep doing your content and leave [being a] Salaried.”
Debate over excessive overtime
At age 27, Issei said he hoped to find a steady job soon after graduation, but instead he had to bounce between a series of companies that expected many hours of overtime and where the culture was “challenging” for anyone expecting a proper work-life balance.
“We call them ‘black companies’ and it was really hard,” said Issei, who works in sales, who did not want to give his surname because he is currently unemployed and applying for new positions.
“I had some debt after university and it was difficult to pay it off even when I was working full-time,” he said. “There were days when I was definitely depressed, but I read about people dying from ‘karoshi’ or committing suicide.
“It was never that bad for me because I would love to quit, but I can understand how some people don’t think they can do it and keep going until it’s too late.”
However, others are cautiously in favor of allowing anyone who wants to work extra hours without violating the law, especially in times of economic challenges.
“The issue is complex,” admits Makoto Watanabe, a professor of communications and media at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Eniwa, Hokkaido.
“Some people want to work long hours because they can earn a good income and the laws are in place to protect those who don’t want to work unlimited overtime.
“There have been problems with suicide, illness and ‘karoshi’ related to overwork but I think things have improved in recent years,” he said.
“I believe that if the laws are not weakened so much that employers can abuse them, people should be able to work as much as they want to.”
If you are suffering from severe emotional stress or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information about where to get such help, no matter where you live in the world, on this website: https://befrienders.org
Edited by: Keith Walker