60s Japanese Man Working Two Jobs at University and Company Dies... "Everyone Ignored the Pain" Recognized as Industrial Accident

NHK "60s Working Two Jobs at University and Company Dies, Recognized as Industrial Accident"
Complained of Excessive Workload but Both Places Ignored
Labor Authorities "April Death Worker Recognized as Industrial Accident"
Bereaved Family "Encouraged Two Jobs but Ignored Mental Health"

A man in his 60s who was working two jobs at a university and a company passed away, highlighting an aspect of Japan's aging society.

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Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on the 16th that "regarding the death of a man in his 60s who worked as a researcher at Gifu University and as a surveying staff member, the Labor Standards Inspection Office judged that the cause was the individual bearing workplace stress alone and recognized it as an industrial accident." The man, who was recognized for industrial accident compensation, started working at Gifu University and a surveying company headquartered in Tokyo respectively from December 2019 and died in May 2021.

According to the bereaved family and their legal representative, the man experienced stress while participating in an international contribution project as a researcher at the university. He appealed to the university about this stress for about a month before his death but was ignored. At the company, as a technician, he handled and compiled data from 74 bridge inspection projects alone for about six months until around February 2021, shortly before his death. The Labor Standards Inspection Office judged that the stress from both workplaces caused the man to suffer from depression and recognized it as an industrial accident in April this year.

The bereaved family said, "He was an expert in the field of bridges with extensive knowledge and dreamed of working overseas in the future using his experience, but this tragedy is extremely unfair." They added, "We hope the university and the company acknowledge their responsibility and improve the workplace environment so that such incidents never happen again."

Gifu University told NHK, "We have not received direct guidance from the Labor Standards Inspection Office and are not aware of the specific details," adding, "We are working on improving the working environment." The company stated, "Due to personal information and privacy issues, we refrain from commenting."

According to a 2022 survey conducted by the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, among 188,980 respondents who answered that they were working, 6%, or 11,358 people, said they had two or more jobs and were engaged in side jobs. The reasons for having side jobs were "to increase income" at 54.5%, "because income from one job alone was insufficient to sustain living" at 38.2%, and "to expand opportunities to be active" at 18.7%.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has evaluated industrial accidents for people working at multiple workplaces by individually assessing the work content of each job. Considering the increase in people working side jobs or multiple jobs, the law was revised in 2020 to comprehensively evaluate the work content of all workplaces to determine industrial accident eligibility.

The legal representative of the bereaved family said, "There have been cases where people working at multiple workplaces were recognized for industrial accidents by summing their working hours, but this is the first case where stress from multiple workplaces was comprehensively evaluated and suicide was recognized as an industrial accident." He added, "While the government encourages side jobs and multiple jobs, there needs to be deeper discussion on how to manage health regarding the accumulation of stress from multiple workplaces," and said, "Relying solely on voluntary reporting by workers is risky, and it is essential for supervisors and others to monitor health conditions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.