Mother of woman who killed herself due to overwork 10 years ago urges public not to forget issue of ‘karoshi’

TOKYO — The mother of a 24-year-old woman who committed suicide due to overwork on Dec 25, 2015, appealed to the public not to let the issue of karoshi (death due to overwork) be forgotten.

Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, Yukimi Takahashi spoke of her daughter Matsuri's suicide.

"We will be celebrating our 10th Christmas without Matsuri. The more time passes, the more I imagine her life, when she should have been here, and the more painful it becomes,” NTV reported.

Matsuri was a new employee of advertising giant Dentsu. She committed suicide by jumping from a company dormitory on Christmas Day 2015. On the day of her death, Takahashi sent an email to her mother, saying "Work is unbearable. Life is unbearable. Thank you for everything."

Although it was her first year at the company, her overtime hours totaled approximately 105 hours per month, and her death was recognized as an industrial accident.

Later it was found that Dentsu had violated the Labor Standards Act by forcing employees to work grueling long hours — in many cases, unpaid.

Yukimi said she is concerned about the ongoing rise in deaths from overwork, with over 150 cases, including suicides, reported in fiscal 2024.

"Work should not take someone's life,” she said. “The death of Matsuri should have made all of Japan realize this simple truth.”

She strongly urged that the issue of death from overwork not to be forgotten, arguing that it can happen to anyone.

Matsuri's suicide led to the passage of the Work Style Reform Act in 2018. Its goal was and still is to promote a healthier work environment, setting overtime limits and establishing paid annual leave.

However, labor groups are concerned at comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that she wishes to ease restrictions on overtime work.

Tomoko Yoshino, the head of Rengo, which is Japan's largest group for labor unions, says that is unacceptable. She maintains companies cannot allow the upper limit to be eased since it is already near the threshold that heightened the risks of death from overwork.

Takahashi said: If anything were to happen that would not advance work style reform, or even set it back, bereaved families such as ours would never accept that."

© Japan Today