More Grist To the Mill

On the more macabre end of the Japanese crisis, Kevin has sent me a piece from AP which he thinks may be too grizly to post. I don't know whether he remembers the detail about the Resona auditor who took his own life under the pressure.

A record number of Japanese managers, engineers and workers died of overwork last year, the government said Tuesday, showing that the country's economic slump hasn't reduced pressures on Japanese to work long hours. The number of deaths resulting from excessive work rose to 317 in the fiscal year through March, more than double the previous record of 143 set the previous year. Death from overwork, known here as "karoshi," has steadily increased since theHealth Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987. With effects such as brain aneurisms, strokes and heart attacks, karoshi strikes a wide range of people, but doctors, factory workers and taxi drivers were hit the hardest. It sometimes is triggered by
logging as many as 50 overtime hours in one week. The jump was partly due to a redefinition of karoshi to encompass up to six months of accumulated work-related stress and fatigue instead of the previous standard of just one week.
Sourde: AP Tokyo