Karo Jisatsu And Karoshi Case Study

conclude that the cultural background of Japan provides a tolerant or in some cases, even encouraging environment for suicides, as long as people die for so-called “good deeds”. The social expectation is also one of the key factors that had pushed some Japanese people to killing themselves. In many reported cases of Karo-Jisatsu and Karoshi, many victims overly blamed themselves for failing to live up to other people’s expectations and therefore this phenomenon can be interpreted as a way of “face-saving” (Kawanishi, 66), meaning that they failed to maintain a decent reputation or did something unfavorable or wrong that is not favorable to the people around them and thus feel extremely shamed about it. Those employees who had committed suicides …show more content…
Although Japan has set up an official limitation of working time in its laws, not all the employers and employees obey that law all the time. According to the data provided in the study of Kondo and Oh, in the year of 2000, 28% of all the Japanese workers had to work more than 50 hours per week, which largely surpassed people’s working hours the other such as the United States and New Zealand (Kondo and Oh, 649). Usually, service overtime does not count for official work time and does not have any payment (Kawanishi, 68). In some extreme cases, even if an employee killed himself due to excessive working, the police will not find any record of working overtime in the company check-in system. For all the employees, regardless of how many hours they work after the regular office time or how much extra work they had done on weekends and holidays, there is no record officially and obviously, unpaid as well. To make the situation worse, a new policy of paying the employees by their performance came out. In some cases, an efficient and capable employee may earn less than a slow and lazy employee (Kawanishi, 69). The problem also leads to social inequality, which is also one of the reasons that cause the Japanese employees killing …show more content…
Due to the recession period of Japan in 1997, although the high unemployment rate was a serious problem, those who were employed were not secured (Kondo and Oh, 649). If they cannot prove their working ability or working attitude, they had to quit the job. The fierce competition forced the workers to work overload and over time and finally brought up the newly born Karoshi and Karo-Jisatsu phenomenon at the beginning of the 21st century. According to the data showed in Kondo and Oh’s study, the Karoshi rate increase drastically after 2001, and keeps a high level since then (Kondo and Oh, 649). Moreover, the increasing tendency of globalization is changing the Japanese economic structure and meanwhile pushing Japanese companies to cut their budget on hiring so as to compete with other companies and countries. Especially under the high-pressure competition with China, an aggressive rival with a surprising growth rate and unpredictable potentials, Japanese companies have to take to the risk of violating government regulations to exploit its employees in the past decade (Kawanishi, 69). In order to save even more hiring budget, Haken Syain 派遣社員, another type of employee become a victim of exploiting workers. Unlike the officially registered employees in a company, they are sent out as mobile labors that work in companies that need them temporarily. As soon as their work is done, they have to leave and head to another company right