Japan Proposes Overtime Limit to Fight ‘Death from Overwork

Japan's government has proposed new limits on the amount of overtime employees can work.

日本政府已经提议对加班员工的工作数量实行新的限制。

The restrictions would cap overtime to 100 hours per month and 720 hours per year. The plan is supported by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the reforms are expected to eventually be approved by parliament.

限制将加班时间限制在每月100小时和每年720小时。该计划得到了安倍晋三首相的支持，改革计划有望最终获得议会的批准。

The government has said the overtime limits aim to fight what the Japanese call "karoshi," or death from overwork.

日本政府表示，加班限制的目标是抗击日本人所谓的“过劳死”。

Japan's business culture has a long history of demanding that employees work many hours of overtime. An online survey last year also found that most Japanese workers only take about half the number of vacation days they are given.

日本的商业文化有着悠久的历史，要求员工加班数小时。去年的一项在线调查还发现，大多数日本工人的休假天数只有他们休假天数的一半左右。

The dangers of long working hours were highlighted by the 2015 death of an employee at Japanese advertising company Dentsu. The 24-year-old female employee committed suicide after complaining to family about the long hours she had to work.

日本广告公司dentsu的一名员工于2015年死亡，凸显了长时间工作的危险。这位24岁的女员工在向家人抱怨她不得不工作很长时间后自杀了。

Public outrage over the woman's death led to the resignation of Dentsu's CEO last January. The company's new chief has pledged to obey all labor laws and carry out reforms to protect the health and safety of employees.

公众对这名妇女死亡的愤怒导致了丹通首席执行官去年1月辞职。公司新任总裁承诺遵守所有劳动法，并进行改革，以保护员工的健康和安全。

Michael Cucek is with Temple University's Japan Campus. He says efforts by the Japanese government to improve conditions for workers are seen as a good thing. However, he and some Japanese activist groups believe the proposed limits are too high to truly make life better for employees.

"The number is absurd - that in a single month, one can have 100 hours of overtime, is simply a ridiculous number."

迈克尔·库切克在坦普尔大学的日本校区工作。他说，日本政府改善工人条件的努力被视为一件好事。然而，他和一些日本活动家团体认为，提议的限制太高，无法真正改善员工的生活。              “这个数字太荒谬了——在一个月内，一个人可以加班100小时，这简直是一个荒谬的数字。”

A government report said last year that about one in five Japanese companies have employees who work such long hours that they are at serious risk of death.

一份政府报告去年说，大约五分之一的日本公司的员工工作时间太长，他们面临严重的死亡风险。

The report found that nearly 23 percent of companies had some employees working over 80 hours of overtime a month. Medical officials have noted a greater possibility of death from work among people working at least 80 overtime hours per month.

报告发现，近23%的公司有部分员工每月加班超过80小时。医疗官员指出，每月至少加班80小时的人更有可能因工作而死亡。

The survey also showed that about 21 percent of Japanese employees work an average of 49 or more hours each week. That number compares to 16 percent of American, 13 percent of British and 10 percent of French employees.

调查还显示，约21%的日本员工每周平均工作49小时或更长时间。相比之下，美国的这一比例为16%，英国的这一比例为13%，法国的这一比例为10%。

Cucek says the woman who killed herself while working at Dentsu is an example of how work isolates many Japanese workers.

库切克说，在丹图工作时自杀的妇女是工作如何隔离许多日本工人的一个例子。

"She was living not at home, but in a corporate dormitory. So there was never anybody to talk to. Never any way of her breaking out of the environment where ‘you must work, you must work, you must work,' was being pressed upon her."

“她不是住在家里，而是住在公司宿舍里。所以没人能和他说话。她从来没有摆脱过“你必须工作，你必须工作，你必须工作”的环境，而这种环境正压在她身上。”

He said he hopes new overtime rules will send a clear message to Japanese companies that they can no longer demand an environment leading to employee health problems and death.

他说，他希望新的加班规定将向日本公司传达一个明确的信息，即他们不再需要一个导致员工健康问题和死亡的环境。

I'm Alice Bryant.