Death From Overwork Is a Real Thing and It's Affecting Young Adults the Most

A 31-year-old journalist in Japan is dead in the latest case of "death from overwork."

The New York Times reports on Miwa Sado, a Japanese journalist who worked for the country's state-run broadcasting network, NHK. She spent the summer of 2013 covering two elections in Tokyo, and her schedule was reportedly grueling. In one month, she logged 159 hours of overtime, rarely took a weekend off, and didn't stop working almost every day until midnight. A few days after the second election, she died of congestive heart failure at 31.

The Times reports that this is something of a well-known phenomenon in Japan:

The case — the latest high-profile example of karoshi, or "death from overwork" — came to light only after the broadcaster, NHK, announced it this week.Karoshi became widely recognized as a phenomenon in the late 1980s, as stories of blue-collar employees keeling over at work appeared to expose a sinister side to Japan's postwar economic miracle. Over the years, cases of karoshi have been reported among white-collar executives, automotive engineers and immigrant trainees.

The Times goes on to say that, "in a 2016 government report on karoshi, nearly a quarter of companies surveyed said that some employees were working more than 80 hours of overtime a month."

Many in Japan have been calling for legislation to curb incidents of karoshi. The Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training published a paper last year saying it was especially an issue to employees under age 35.

Sado's parents released a statement after her death, condemning her company and the situation that led to their daughter's death.

"It is an abnormal work situation to work almost every day on Saturday and Sunday, working until late at night every day, so we cannot understand why such a situation was overlooked," their statement said.