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New occupational threats to Japanese physicians: karoshi (death due to overwork) and karojisatsu (suicide due to overwork)

Health Service Center, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan

Correspondence to:
Dr Toru Hiyama, Health Service Center, Hiroshima University, 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashihiroshima 739-8521, Japan; tohiyama@hiroshima-u.ac.jp

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It has been said that the Japanese have a "worker bee" attitude toward matters of employment. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report (2004), 28.1% of Japanese employees worked 50 hours or more per week in 2001.¹ This percentage is much higher than in European countries such as the Netherlands (1.4%), Sweden (1.9%), Finland (4.5%) and Germany (5.3%). Physicians are no exception; in fact, they may work more than other types of workers. Japanese physicians worked 66.4 hours per week on average in 2005, according to a report by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) of Japan.²

This working style may cause physical health problems, such as ischaemic heart disease and cerebral haemorrhage.³ "Karoshi", which is sudden death due to overwork, is reported to be the most serious consequence.⁴ Overwork can kill if combined with high demand, low control, and poor social support.⁵ The MHLW reported . . . [Full text of this article]