Japanese policeman stabs self to avoid work
Justin McCurry in Tokyo Monday June 4, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The plight of overworked Japanese employees was highlighted over the weekend when it emerged that a policeman had stabbed himself in the stomach and tried to make it look like an assault so that he could take time off work.
Tomoyuki Mukaide, an assistant inspector, had worked for two months without a break in the aftermath of an earthquake that struck Ishikawa prefecture in north-west Japan, on March 25.
Colleagues said Mr Mukaide, 44, had struggled to cope with the demands of assisting hundreds of people who had been injured in the quake and tens of thousands of others whose homes had been damaged.
By the end of last month Mr Mukaide was at the end of his tether. He stabbed himself with a fruit knife at his home in nearby Kanazawa on May 23, but told police he had been attacked when he opened his front door to a stranger, sparking an investigation into attempted murder.
Investigators were immediately suspicious because he had waited an hour before reporting the incident. When they failed to find any other witnesses to the attack, Mr Mukaide admitted he had invented the story because he could not face going to work.
"He became very busy, he felt like he couldn't handle the work he had to do, and that the work was weighing him down," a police spokesman was quoted as saying.
Mr Mukaide, who was released from hospital on May 31 after being treated for minor injuries, is being investigated for filing a false report.
A combination of long working hours and unsympathetic bosses is taking its toll on the health of a record number of Japanese workers.
Last month, health officials reported that the number of employees who received compensation for mental health problems brought on by work-related stress rose to 205 last year, a jump of 65% from 2005.
The number of workers who committed suicide for similar reasons rose from 42 in 2005 to a record 65, the health ministry said.
Employees routinely complain that they are expected to put in unreasonable amounts of overtime, with many reluctant to go home before their colleagues for fear of being seen as lazy or disloyal.
One study found that almost a third of men employed by private firms in Osaka and Tokyo worked more than 12 hours a day, yet only half were paid proper overtime. At least a quarter of Japanese men in their 30s work more than 60 hours a week, according to official figures.