China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Comparisons with Japan
Published in Takenori Mishiba, Workplace Mental Health Law, 2020
In 1996, a company contested its civil liability for damages in the Dentsu case, and an administrative body contested its liability for workers’ compensation in the Yahagi Densetsu and Head of the South Nagoya Labor Standards Inspection Office case,20 but both the company and the administrative body lost. This led to administrative bodies initiating active and concerted efforts to prevent suicide and karōshi [death from being overworked]. As a result, changes were made at a fevered pitch. The criteria for determining whether an injury or illness is work-related were re-examined, guidelines and manuals on mental health were issued, and the Industrial Safety and Health Act was amended. Companies and academic societies actively initiated efforts related to mental health.
What Actually Is Sleep?
Published in Zippi Dolev, Mordechai Zalesch, Judy Kupferman, Sleep and Women's Health, 2019
Zippi Dolev, Mordechai Zalesch, Judy Kupferman
Huffington reveals, among other things, that there are languages that contain a specific word for death from overwork and sleep deprivation—“karoshi” in Japanese, “gwarosa” in Korean, and “guolaosi” in Chinese. English and Hebrew have yet to come up with a word for this phenomenon.
The Stress System
Published in Len Wisneski, The Scientific Basis of Integrative Health, 2017
A phenomenon called karoshi, literally death (shi) from overwork (karo), is the second leading cause of death (after cancer) in Japan, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health. Karoshi affects managers and supervisors, primarily in their 30 s and 40 s. These men (it seems it is exclusively men) suddenly die from stroke or heart attack—perhaps from contraction band lesions. They are forced to work 70-hour weeks, week after week, month after month. In addition, they tend to use cigarettes and alcohol to reduce their stress. The labor ministry is now granting compensation to widows of these men, while still denying the existence of karoshi. Sadly, these men simply lose their ability to function, sometimes while at work. If they are lucky enough to survive, they are taken to a specialized medical facility, called a karoshi unit, for physical and emotional rehabilitation, where they learn relaxation techniques and self-management skills
Productivity loss of Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis – A cross-sectional survey
Published in Modern Rheumatology, 2018
Rosarin Sruamsiri, Jörg Mahlich, Eiichi Tanaka, Hisashi Yamanaka
The estimated prevalence of RA in Japan is 1% (1.24 million persons) [11]. A biologic-era cohort study reported annual direct medical costs of 262,136 JPY (2154 USD) and direct nonmedical costs of 61,441 JPY (505 USD) [5]. To the best of our knowledge no study on productivity loss in Japan has been published. Japanese work ethic and sick leave may uniquely influence the impact of RA on productivity. For example, Japanese workers are less likely to call in sick and to view missed work more negatively than employees from other countries [12]. Indeed Japanese employees’ willingness to work at the expense of their own health is so extreme that there is a word in Japanese, karōshi, which translates to ‘occupational death’ or ‘working oneself to death’ [13]. These cultural nuances suggest RA may uniquely impact on productivity among Japanese workers.
An emerging new concept for the management of type 2 diabetes with a paradigm shift from the glucose-centric to beta cell-centric concept of diabetes - an Asian perspective
Published in Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 2020
Dysfunctional beta cells eventually lead to beta cell death through induced apoptosis or necrosis [11,105,106]. Other studies have suggested that beta cell dedifferentiation and/or transdifferentiation to other endocrine cells are also involved in reduced BCM in T2DM [107]. ‘Karoshi’ is a Japanese term meaning death due to overwork. We can call beta cell death due to overwork ‘beta cell karoshi’, which would make it easier for the general population to understand the pathophysiology of T2DM [108].