産業医.com / Occupational Health Physician.com

Recently, the control of the Labor Standards Inspection Office is strengthened, and the number of their recommendation is rapidly increasing.

So, foreign companies in Japan must take special attention about;

Rousai (Workers‘ Accident Compensation)

Karoshi (Death from Overwork)

Overtime and Excessive Working Hours

Penal regulations from the Labor Standards Inspection Office are;

1.Request for Corrective Action (改善指導票)

This is not a violation of the labor law, but you should improve it.

2. Instruction for Corrective Action (yellow card) (是正勧告書)

This is an administrative guidance, and not an administrative penalty.

However, if it is left undone, it will be a violation of the labor law and sent to the prosecutor’s office.

3. Decree (red card) (命令書)

This is an order and you will be punished if you don’t obey it.

n For yellow card and red card, you must submit a corrective action report.

  OR

n Fine 500,000 yen and a loss of social trust.

n It will be a big disadvantage in a court.

• Both numbers of Rousai claims and recognitions are increasing in past decade, but the number of recognitions is more increasing.

• Rapid increase in the number of mental disease Rousai cases.

• Most Rousai diseases are diseases caused by lifestyle choices and others involve with mental disease.

1.         The employee has been suffered from a mental disease.

2.         The employee was under a strong mental stress from his/her work for half an year, before the onset of the symptom.

・         Failure at work

・         An increase of his/her responsibility

・         Changes in quality and amount (time) of work

・         Changes in his/her position, (forcing him/ her to retire)

3.         Find no other stress or personal reasons to have a mental stress/disease apart from his/her work.

・         Divorce, separation, family’s death.

lKaroshi usually has lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia, and depression in its background.

Previously, these diseases where thought to be “Private Disease” and each employee had their “Own Responsibility” for their disease.

lRecently, it is thought that these diseases are in some part a “Company’s Responsibility”.

The responsibility of companies and managers are imposed because some lifestyle diseases can be found in a health check-up and also, “Overtime Working” is an important factor in this issue.

l Companies have to care about their employees’ health problems which are not directly caused by their work but may have close relationship with their work.

l Companies have to know about their employees’ health situations and excessive working hours.

n An accumulation of tiredness is commonly estimated by overtime work hours.

　nPeriod before the onset of the symptom.

n Within one week → within six months.

n Relationship between overwork time and brain / heart disease.

n  >100 hrs, within 1 month 　　→Strong relationship!

n  >80 hrs, within 2-6 months　→Strong relationship!

n  >45 hrs                             →Relationship exists.

n  <45hrs, within 6months　　　 →Weak relationship.

n Factors that indicates Rousai apart from overtime work hours.

n Changes in quality and amount of work

n Changes in his/her position

n Changes in his/her working partners

n Communication problems with other workers

n Health check-up and caring for his/her health