Latest 15 of 44 Total Comments Show All

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  Xeno23 at 04:30 PM JST - 10th July

  Health is the last thing to be naive about. Acquaintance of mine played tennis regularly, rode a bike on a weekly basis, worked out, ate healthy, didn't smoke, only drank socially - keeled over dead at 42. Not because he wasn't leading a healthy lifestyle, but because he had family risk factors for sudden heart disease he didn't know anything about - or rather, chose to ignore because he thought he was healthy.

  Look, overwork can kill you, particularly if you have risk factors you're not taking into consideration. My own cardiologist tells me this on a regular basis, and she has a lot of similar stories. Unless you intimately know your own risk factors, you'll have no idea how close you could be to stroke, heart attack, quick killing cancer like stomach cancer. A cousin of mine died of stomach cancer in five months, from diagnosis to grave. Many of these things aren't all that apparent until they blow up.

  Exercise, healthy life style is good - no question about it, but if you think that alone will protect you, you're wrong. Understand your health history, understand your family health history. Don't just assume you're healthy because you feel fine. Remember, you are NOT a doctor.

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  Zen_Builder at 04:40 PM JST - 10th July

  Agree with xeno.

  Healthy life-style alone won't protect you. Way more factors involved.

  How many athletes died young? Yeah, they had the best guidance, nutrition, etc.

  Example: Cancer/depression/etc can hit anyone it don't care about life-style, nutrition, etc.

  How many Top-earners turned to drugs, etc? They had everything and yet they still got hit.

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  wilbur at 06:18 PM JST - 10th July

  more like died from sitting in his cubicle all day then going out and drinking too much crap whiskey and smoking too many crap cigarettes and eating instant noodles for dinner

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  romulus3 at 06:41 PM JST - 10th July

  never work for a Japanese company. never.

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  WMD at 07:43 PM JST - 10th July

  There are no real effective unions in japan. So workers are just slaves to be abused as the management sees fit. At my company, all overtime is unpaid. I naturally don't do overtime as I don't work for free but some of the japanese male workers are doing 3 to 4 unpaid hours a day!! Crazy but the workers are always kept in a state of fear about getting the chop. Is this living??

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  IamNotTheBuddha at 08:38 PM JST - 10th July

  80 hrs. OT = 20/week = 4 per day = Big Whoop!

  The far more insidious problem is that if you speak with the people catching the last train home from work...more likely than not they CHOOSE to be at work. Given the abysmal conditions back in the mansions, the comforts of an office (a chair, desk, internet, free tea, AC, and a little elbow-room) seems like paradise.

  (Crappy Home Life plus Crappy Job - Vacation) x (No Hope)= Death at 45 (q.e.d.)

  What other country in the world does one hear Hang in There! and Persevere! (i.e. がんばって!) 10-20 times a day? Any place where someone needs to be continually encouraged to just keep going has got some fundamental lifestlye issues to address.

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  sabinuki at 09:01 PM JST - 10th July

  (Crappy Home Life plus Crappy Job - Vacation) x (No Hope)= Death at 45 (q.e.d.)

  Hilarious! But a bit long so I'll have to write it down on the back of my hand so I get 30 percent and pass those entrance exams.

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  wilbur at 09:07 PM JST - 10th July

  life is not about 'persevere' or 'endure', its about 'enjoy'..unless, apparently, you live in japan...or, north korea...maybe afghanistan

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  thepro at 09:58 PM JST - 10th July

  I was talking to a Japanese friend when I was drunk the other day about how she works full time, plus overtime, for an extremely low wage and lives in a tiny box of an apartment. I said, 'Why are you even living for? Don't you ever think that there's more you could be doing in life?' and she said 'I don't know...'

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  thepro at 09:59 PM JST - 10th July

  I was talking to a Japanese friend when I was drunk the other day about how she works full time, plus overtime, for an extremely low wage and lives in a tiny box of an apartment. I said, 'Why are you even living for? Don't you ever think that there's more you could be doing in life?' and she said 'I don't know...'

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  timorborder at 10:12 PM JST - 10th July

  Work for yourself, be your own boss and don't encounter these problems.

  Then again, it is not just the corporate world that experiences "overwork." When I was a young officer in the army on deployment (both UN and combat-related), I would get 30 minutes sleep a night for periods of 2 or 3 weeks at a time. Indeed, despite 4 years of university at the tax payers expense, I was considered largely expendible. Such sleep deprivation, combined with the stress of the job (foot patrols in unknown areas laid with landmines and the occassional contact)tends to have a negative impact on your health. You also tend to drink like a fish when given the opportunity.

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  dw at 12:08 AM JST - 11th July

  Simple math... 9-5 = 8 hrs/day. 9-9 = 12 hrs (difference 4 hrs). 4hrs * 5 days=20 hrs per week. *4 = 80 hrs per month... so if you work normally a 12 hour day then ... you're at death's door already ? The norm in Japan appears to be a 12 hr day, so this guy must have been doing 9-1am every day (sounds like me :-(

  Toyota should have been sued big time here. The problem in Japan about working hours is at the employers side - not the Government nor insurers.. All Toyota is saying above is that they'll make sure that Employees go on the regular yearly medical checkup - were the Government simply takes samples of blood etc for statistical analysis, and if anything's wrong with you, your employer can fire you...

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  usaexpat at 12:31 AM JST - 11th July

  I don't doubt that he worked himself to death but it happens in many lesser jobs too. Between my first drop out of college and going back to finish my degree I worked for a restruant chain as a general manager. 60-70 hour weeks were pretty normal and I can tell you that people are not built to live like that. Companies and workers alike need to realise the limits. This guy was under pressure in a product develoment timeline but many workers in Japan are simply working these kind of hours accomplishing nothing because it's part of the company culture.

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  Youdontknow at 04:12 AM JST - 11th July

  I worked for a German company here in Japan last year, and the president of the company came over here, and couldn't understand how Japanese work so many hours and achieve less results. And he had a valid point. I watched Japanese staff members run around like headless chickens in the company, and yet, most of the time they were doing nothing but having meetings about meetings! I felt sorry for the guys who only saw their kids twice a year - Golden Week and Obon - and their families. The sick thing is, Japanese people really believe you have to be a hard worker for the company to be worth anything in society. The other sick thing is - they work for a salary that in the USA and UK for example, was made illegal years ago. Who in their right mind is going to sit in an office all day for $7 an hour?

  Japanese working conditions are an abomination to the rights of men and women alike. And while the senior authority figures at the top have the power to change things, they don't, simply because they lack the conscience of guilt when they make their subordinates work hard to fatten their pockets!

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  rajakumar at 01:28 AM JST - 12th July

  Japan's toyota fame going down, with this kind of news about staff , and working conditions.

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