Opinion

The Japanese authorities recently issued a 2022 white paper on measures to prevent death from overwork which analysed the situation of death and suicide from overwork and dealt with relevant measures.  

According to the white paper, the number of people who died or killed themselves due to mental depression caused by excessive overwork increased by over 60 percent in the past decade and by nearly 80 percent among women.

The point is the analysis of the problem by the Japanese authorities.

An official of the Ministry of Welfare and Labour claimed that the number of such persons increased as people’s awareness of the labour problems was heightened owing to reforms in the mode of labour and the like. 

It is nothing more than mockery of and insult to victims. 

As foreign media commented, the increasing ratio of people suffering mental anguish in Japan has resulted from such excessive workload as long hours of work. 

Every economic lever in the country is used to bring more profits to the capitalists by exploiting the working masses.

As all the economic policies and laws and regulations related to economic sectors are designed for the defence and maintenance of the capitalist exploitation system, the capitalists get more undisguised in exploiting working people.    

Abusing working people’s fear that they might be sacked at any time, the capitalists force them to work overtime or in the places with poor working conditions while paying wages as low as possible.

In recent years alone many people died from overfatigue, including a 27-year-old engineer of an IT company who died after long hours of work and a 24-year old female employee who killed herself after leaving a note that both her body and mind were torn to pieces.

This notwithstanding, the Japanese authorities speciously talk about heightened awareness of the labour problems by distorting the terrible labour situation.

The miserable plight of Japanese working people is attributable to the chronic maladies of the capitalist social system absolutely protecting the interests of a tiny handful of the privileged and capitalist classes alone.