Kenichi Uchino, a quality control manager with Toyota, was worked off his feet, quite literally, in fact. He collapsed and died at 4 AM while at work after clocking more than eighty hours of overtime for each of the six months prior to his death in 2002. Only a few days earlier, he remarked to his wife, “The moment when I am happiest is when I can sleep.” Kenichi, the third generation of his family to work for the Japanese firm, left behind two children, aged three and one. On November 30, 2007, Nagoya District Court accepted Hiroko Uchino’s claim that her husband had died of karoshi.1

The first acknowledged case of karoshi, or “death by overwork,” occurred in Japan in 1969 with the collapse of a 29-year-old man in the shipping department of Japan’s largest newspaper company.2 But the media did not pick up on the phenomenon until the late 1980s. In 1987, it was legally recognized as a cause of death, and the Japanese Ministry of Labor began publishing statistics. Since then, the number of applications for official karoshi classification has soared, as have ensuing court appeals when the government denied the requests. In 1988, the success rate for applications was only 4%; by 2005, it had jumped to 40%. The financial stakes are also high. Surviving family members of a karoshi victim may receive $20,000 per year in government compensation and up to $1 million in damages from the employer. Those ruled against may receive nothing.3

Karoshi is rooted in the cultural and economic makeup of Japan. Hard work is respected, and a virtuous person will sacrifice his own interests for the well-being of the group. These values fuelled the Japanese post-war economic boom, but since the 1980s, pressures to remain competitive in the global economy have increased. Companies have turned to part-time employees, so job insecurity has risen among full-time workers. Consequently, many of the latter are putting in longer, voluntary, and unpaid hours to keep their jobs.

Now, the Uchino case has sent tremors throughout the Japanese corporate world. By stating that Kenichi’s long hours were integral to his job, the court increased the pressure on companies to treat obligatory “free overtime” as paid work.4 And employers are being pressed to adopt measures reducing the risk of karoshi.

With the proliferation of electronic resources (e.g., cell phones, café and airport Wi-Fi, Blackberries, etc.) whereby workers can be connected and toiling 24/7, the prospect of karoshi is also a spectre in the West. Indeed, as many families around the world seek a higher standard of living, both parents may be holding down two or three jobs—and advancing toward an early grave. Furthermore, it is not all elective: high-powered companies in Europe and the Americas can be just as prone as their Japanese counterparts to demand a crushing time commitment.

Though the Bible teaches a strong work ethic, it does not teach “the more work the better.” If it did, then devout Christians would be dropping from karoshi everywhere. But the Fourth Commandment insists on rest as well as setting aside time as wholly and holy for God. Indeed, the burden God puts on His children is light; it is a joy to bear it. If, however, a believer lets fear or ambition rob him of his joy and health, then he needs to let God gently lift his hands from the keyboard, his shoulder from the wheel, and his mind from the fray. Hereby the Lord restores the vital balance.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  “Jobs for Life,” The Economist Website, December 19, 2007, http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10329261 (accessed January 23, 2008).
 
2  “Karoshi—Death from Overwork: Occupational Health Consequences of the Japanese Production Management,” Work Health Website, http://www.workhealth.org/whatsnew/lpkarosh.html (accessed January 23, 2008).
 
3  “Jobs for Life.”
 
4  Ibid
adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Cecil County, MD.