打擊“過(guò)勞死”，日本是認(rèn)真的？

打擊“過(guò)勞死”，日本是認(rèn)真的？

日本的加班文化創(chuàng)造了“過(guò)勞死”這個(gè)詞，而日本政府在今年全力倡議每個(gè)月要有一天早下班！日本的加班時(shí)間遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)其它國(guó)家，去年日本員工平均工作時(shí)間是 1719 小時(shí)，而德國(guó)、法國(guó)和英國(guó)的平均工作時(shí)間分別是 1371、1482、1674 小時(shí)。但是根據(jù)日本生產(chǎn)力中心的數(shù)據(jù)，在 G7 國(guó)家里，日本的工作效率是最低的。

測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí)：

deflation通貨緊縮；放氣

glimmer微光；閃光；少許['gl?m?]

ruinously毀滅地；敗壞地['r??n?sli]

sleep-deprived睡眠不足

snoozing小睡；打盹兒[snu?z]

pile on堆在…之上；使堆積在…

karoshi（日）過(guò)勞死[k?'r???]

blurred模糊不清的；被弄污的

negotiation談判；轉(zhuǎn)讓；順利的通過(guò)[n?g????'e??(?)n]

‘Death by overwork’in Japan exposes dangers of overtime culture（759 words）

By Leo Lewis

For a nation struggling to make sense of deflation,duty and the shock of a graduate trainee being worked to death at one of Japan’s most prestigious companies,“Premium Friday”seems to provide a glimmer of hope.

Following revelations of ruinously excessive overtime demands at Japan’s largest advertising agency,Dentsu,the government wants bosses to order their overworked,sleep-deprived employees home at 3pm on the last Friday of every month.

Proponents of the idea,which include the powerful Keidanren business lobby,argue that workers could use the time for recuperative snoozing or enjoy more leisure activities and rev the economy out of deflation.

It may not,say many labour experts,be quite that simple.

In Japan,quality time has long been measured in minutes. But pressure is piling on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe,now entering his fifth year at the helm of the“Abenomics”economic revitalisation programme. Legal claims of death by overwork have risen to a record during his reign,and many see labour reform as badly overdue.

Mr Abe is discovering — as leaders before him have — that any attempt to reform Japan’s long-hour culture stumbles. Attitudes have adapted from postwar nation rebuilding to the 1980s desire for dominance,through to the protect-my-job-at-all-cost workaholism of the past two deflationary decades. What has remained constant is punishing overwork.

“There is a structural and deep-rooted problem with the working practice not just of Dentsu but other companies,”says Hiroshi Kawahito,a lawyer advising the family of Matsuri Takahashi,a Dentsu graduate trainee whose suicide has roused the Japanese public from a traditional indifference towards stories of punishing overwork.

The true extent of overtime worked in Japan,adds Waseda University labour law professor Makoto Ishida,is“impossible to calculate but undoubtedly very very huge”.

Last month,when Japan’s labour ministry referred Dentsu and one of its executives to prosecutors over Ms Takahashi’s death,the company said in a statement:“We take the incident seriously. We offer our apology to those concerned for causing such a situation.”

Ms Takahashi’s death came to light late last year after her parents went public with the conclusion of the local labour standards bureau that their daughter had been a victim of karoshi — the legally recognised“death by overwork”syndrome from which,officially,at least 200 Japanese die every year,and which labour groups believe silently claims many more.

Media reports on the contents of deleted text messages Ms Takahashi sent to her mother while she was struggling to survive on just 10 hours of sleep a week bit the public mood in Japan particularly hard.

Work overload has become a global problem,as access to technology has blurred the definition of working hours.

From January 1,French organisations with more than 50 workers have been obliged to start negotiations with staff to define the hours they can ignore their smartphones. Many banks have sought to curb long hours for junior bankers in the wake of the death of a Bank of America intern in London in 2013,which was a result of a seizure possibly caused by work overload,a coroner’s inquest found.

Japanese work culture is,however,infused with an idea that exhaustion is more virtuous than excellence — a position that has suited companies just fine. Karoshi is nothing new. The term was first recognised in Japan decades ago,and annual claims have been steadily rising to a record 1,456 in 2015. Clocking up an average of just over 2,000 working hours a year,the Japanese are one of the world’s most overworked nations.

A recent health ministry report found Japanese sleeping even less in 2015 than they did in the pressurised 1980s. Corporate Japan’s long-term shift to employing more part-time workers has served to increase the workloads on full-time staff.

Even the language of the workplace gives the game away: as each worker leaves（no matter how late),he or she apologises to those left behind（osakini shitsureishimasu) for doing so. The remainers duly thank the departee for“tiring yourself out”.

Reform attempts are under way. There is an existing policy to name and shame companies that force more than 100 hours of overtime per month on employees. The threshold will be lowered to 80 hours. Failing bosses will have to explain themselves to the Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare.

But the Premium Friday campaign may prove to be a cosmetic publicity drive unless Japanese companies change the culture.

Keio University labour law professor Yoshio Higuchi warns the end of karoshi“will require a simultaneous huge shift in Japanese society itself”.