Cletus' First Collegiate Dictionary of Japanese Chin Music
karoshi
Death from overwork. While some people just collapse and die from overwork (the government recognized 143 cases of karoshi in fiscal 2001), others are driven to suicide because of their work, a death known as karojisatsu (karoshi + jisatsu or suicide).
A key legal case in 2000 found advertising giant Dentsu responsible for the karojisatsu of one of its young male employees. The man, a recent college grad, quickly found that he could not keep up with his workload, and after just a few months on the job, began staying all night to finish his work. Near the end of his first year at Dentsu, his supervisor told him to go home and get some sleep, but in the summer of 1991, he was still working until six thirty in the morning on occasions and was averaging two hours of sleep a night. He began driving erratically and acting abnormally, and near the end of August of that year, he hanged himself at his family home. The family sued and, after a series of appeals, the Supreme Court ruled that Dentsu had to pay compensation of 169 million yen to the family. This was the first time a company was held liable for a case of karojisatsu.