ABUSIVE WORKPLACE

Family of man who killed self after 5-hour scolding sues ex-employer in Japan

June 2, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)

A member of the bereaved family of a man who killed himself in 2016 is seen speaking to reporters after filing the damages suit with the Sendai District Court, in this photo taken in Sendai's Aoba Ward. (Mainichi/Mie Omokawa)

SENDAI -- The family of a man who took his own life while working as a care manager at a medical corporation in this northeastern Japan city has sued the former employer, claiming that his suicide was triggered by a superior's harassment toward him, including a lengthy rebuke lasting as long as five hours.

The bereaved family of the then 41-year-old employee of Midorijuji, a medical corporation in Sendai's Taihaku Ward, brought the case to the Sendai District Court on June 1, demanding the firm pay some 63 million yen (about $570,000) in compensation. The man killed himself in October 2016.

The plaintiffs said they filed the suit to coincide with the first anniversary of power harassment being added to the criteria for recognizing workers' compensation related to mental illness.

According to the complaint, the man was working at Midorijuji's affiliate firm operated by the head of the medical corporation and others, and was involved in the development of hydrogen energy. From around March 2016, he started getting called in to his superior's room repeatedly on the grounds of mistakes he made at work. At one point, his superior chastised him for as long as five hours, including the rebuke, "You idiot!"

The worker was later diagnosed with depression among other conditions, and left the firm in June 2016. He subsequently started working at a different corporation, but went missing in October that year. His body was found the following month.

At a press conference following the filing of the suit, the man's wife told reporters, "Rebuking someone to the point of letting them break down is power harassment. I filed this suit to let it widely be known to society how much such language and actions hurt people, as I think my husband is not the only victim."

The wife earlier applied for workers' compensation in September 2017, but the Sendai Labor Standards Inspection Office turnd down the request in September the following year, prompting the wife to file a complaint. After the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revised the recognition criteria for work-related compensation in June last year, the Miyagi Labor Bureau accordingly nullified the Sendai labor inspection office's decision not to pay compensation to the wife. In response, the Sendai office recognized the case as eligible for industrial compensation.

A lawyer representing Midorijuji commented, "Through the court procedures, we'd like to ask the bereaved family to provide counterarguments to our corporation's claims, and reveal the facts."

(Japanese original by Mie Omokawa, Sendai Bureau)

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