Japanese family says young doctor took his own life after working 200 overtime hours in a single month | cnn

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The family of a 26-year-old Japanese doctor who committed suicide last year after working more than 200 overtime hours in a single month has called for change in a nation. long plagued by the culture of overwork.

Takashima Shingo had been working as a resident doctor at a Kobe city hospital when he took his own life last May, according to public broadcaster NHK.

According to family lawyers, Takashima had worked more than 207 hours of overtime in the month before his death and had not taken a day off for three months, NHK reported.

The Konan Medical Center hospital denied those accusations at a press conference last week. But in June, the government’s labor inspection body ruled that his death was a work-related incident due to his long working hours. according to NHK – highlighting the immense pressures placed on health workers.

Japan has long struggled with a persistent culture of overwork, with employees from all over the world. various sectors denouncing punishing schedules, high pressure from supervisors and deference to the company, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Welfare.

The resulting stress and mental health consequences have even led to a phenomenon called “karoshi” or “death from overwork”, which has led to legislation aimed at preventing deaths and injuries from excessive working hours.

At a press conference last Friday, Takashima’s family described what they said was a young man driven to despair and expressed grief over his death.

Before his suicide, his mother Junko Takashima said, the doctor told him “it was too difficult” and that “no one would help him,” according to a video posted by local media of the press conference.

“No one takes care of me,” he told me over and over again. I think the environment pushed him over the edge,” she said.

“My son will not be a kind doctor nor will he be able to save patients and contribute to society,” he added. “However, I sincerely hope that the working environment for physicians will improve so that this does not happen again in the future.”

Takashima’s brother, whose name was not identified, also spoke at the press conference, saying, “No matter how we look at my brother’s working hours, 200 hours (of overtime) is an incredible number, and I don’t think the hospital is taking a strong approach to labor management first.”

At a press conference last week, the Konan Medical Center responded. “There are many occasions where (doctors) spend time studying alone and sleeping as per their physiological needs,” a spokesperson said. “Due to the very high degree of freedom, it is not possible to accurately determine the working hours.”

When contacted by CNN on Monday, a hospital spokesperson said: “We do not recognize this case as overtime work and will stop commenting on this in the future.”

Various cases of overwork have made national and global headlines over the years; For example, Japanese officials concluded in 2017 that a 31-year-old political journalist, who died in 2013, had suffered heart failure from spending long hours at work. According to NHK, she had worked 159 overtime hours in the month before her death.

The problem remains particularly acute in the health care sector. A 2016 study found that more than a quarter of full-time hospital physicians work up to 60 hours a week, while 5% work up to 90 hours and 2.3% work up to 100 hours.

Another report, published this year by the Japan Association of Medical Collegesfound that more than 34% of physicians are eligible for a “special level of overtime that exceeds the upper limit of 960 hours per year.”

Reforms to labor law and overtime regulations in 2018 have seen some small progress, and the government reporting last year that the average number of annual hours worked per employee has been “gradually declining.” However, while the number of actual work hours has been declining, overtime has fluctuated over the years, he added.