The Japanese government is to call on companies to give workers one Monday morning off each month, in an attempt to improve the country’s poor work-life balance. In 2015, 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi killed herself after working over 100 hours’ overtime. Officials said the absence of hundreds of employees throughout the morning had not negatively affected the ministry’s work, according to the Sora News 24 website. Takahashi’s death was classified as “karoshi”, or death from overwork. The “Shining Mondays” initiative is part of a wider campaign to address long working hours in the country. A new report by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare found that more than half of all deaths were due to overwork – with nearly two-thirds attributed to excessive overtime hours.
The Japanese government is to call on companies to give workers one Monday morning off each month, in an attempt to improve the country’s poor work-life balance. In 2015, 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi killed herself after working over 100 hours’ overtime. Takahashi’s death was classified as “karoshi”, or death from overwork. The “Shining Mondays” initiative is part of a wider campaign to address long working hours in the country. A new report by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare found that more than half of all deaths were due to overwork – with nearly two-thirds attributed to excessive overtime hours.