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打击“过劳死”,日本是认真的?

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2020年05月28日

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打击“过劳死”,日本是认真的?

日本的加班文化创造了“过劳死”这个词,而日本政府在今年全力倡议每个月要有一天早下班!日本的加班时间远远超过其它国家,去年日本员工平均工作时间是 1719 小时,而德国、法国和英国的平均工作时间分别是 1371、1482、1674 小时。但是根据日本生产力中心的数据,在 G7 国家里,日本的工作效率是最低的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识:

deflation通货紧缩;放气

glimmer微光;闪光;少许['glɪmə]

ruinously毁灭地;败坏地['rʊɪnəsli]

sleep-deprived睡眠不足

snoozing小睡;打盹儿[snuːz]

pile on堆在…之上;使堆积在…

karoshi(日)过劳死[kə'rɒʃɪ]

blurred模糊不清的;被弄污的

negotiation谈判;转让;顺利的通过[nɪgəʊʃɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n]

‘Death by overwork’in Japan exposes dangers of overtime culture(759 words)

By Leo Lewis

For a nation struggling to make sense of deflation,duty and the shock of a graduate trainee being worked to death at one of Japan’s most prestigious companies,“Premium Friday”seems to provide a glimmer of hope.

Following revelations of ruinously excessive overtime demands at Japan’s largest advertising agency,Dentsu,the government wants bosses to order their overworked,sleep-deprived employees home at 3pm on the last Friday of every month.

Proponents of the idea,which include the powerful Keidanren business lobby,argue that workers could use the time for recuperative snoozing or enjoy more leisure activities and rev the economy out of deflation.

It may not,say many labour experts,be quite that simple.

In Japan,quality time has long been measured in minutes. But pressure is piling on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe,now entering his fifth year at the helm of the“Abenomics”economic revitalisation programme. Legal claims of death by overwork have risen to a record during his reign,and many see labour reform as badly overdue.

Mr Abe is discovering — as leaders before him have — that any attempt to reform Japan’s long-hour culture stumbles. Attitudes have adapted from postwar nation rebuilding to the 1980s desire for dominance,through to the protect-my-job-at-all-cost workaholism of the past two deflationary decades. What has remained constant is punishing overwork.

“There is a structural and deep-rooted problem with the working practice not just of Dentsu but other companies,”says Hiroshi Kawahito,a lawyer advising the family of Matsuri Takahashi,a Dentsu graduate trainee whose suicide has roused the Japanese public from a traditional indifference towards stories of punishing overwork.

The true extent of overtime worked in Japan,adds Waseda University labour law professor Makoto Ishida,is“impossible to calculate but undoubtedly very very huge”.

Last month,when Japan’s labour ministry referred Dentsu and one of its executives to prosecutors over Ms Takahashi’s death,the company said in a statement:“We take the incident seriously. We offer our apology to those concerned for causing such a situation.”

Ms Takahashi’s death came to light late last year after her parents went public with the conclusion of the local labour standards bureau that their daughter had been a victim of karoshi — the legally recognised“death by overwork”syndrome from which,officially,at least 200 Japanese die every year,and which labour groups believe silently claims many more.

Media reports on the contents of deleted text messages Ms Takahashi sent to her mother while she was struggling to survive on just 10 hours of sleep a week bit the public mood in Japan particularly hard.

Work overload has become a global problem,as access to technology has blurred the definition of working hours.

From January 1,French organisations with more than 50 workers have been obliged to start negotiations with staff to define the hours they can ignore their smartphones. Many banks have sought to curb long hours for junior bankers in the wake of the death of a Bank of America intern in London in 2013,which was a result of a seizure possibly caused by work overload,a coroner’s inquest found.

Japanese work culture is,however,infused with an idea that exhaustion is more virtuous than excellence — a position that has suited companies just fine. Karoshi is nothing new. The term was first recognised in Japan decades ago,and annual claims have been steadily rising to a record 1,456 in 2015. Clocking up an average of just over 2,000 working hours a year,the Japanese are one of the world’s most overworked nations.

A recent health ministry report found Japanese sleeping even less in 2015 than they did in the pressurised 1980s. Corporate Japan’s long-term shift to employing more part-time workers has served to increase the workloads on full-time staff.

Even the language of the workplace gives the game away: as each worker leaves(no matter how late),he or she apologises to those left behind(osakini shitsureishimasu) for doing so. The remainers duly thank the departee for“tiring yourself out”.

Reform attempts are under way. There is an existing policy to name and shame companies that force more than 100 hours of overtime per month on employees. The threshold will be lowered to 80 hours. Failing bosses will have to explain themselves to the Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare.

But the Premium Friday campaign may prove to be a cosmetic publicity drive unless Japanese companies change the culture.

Keio University labour law professor Yoshio Higuchi warns the end of karoshi“will require a simultaneous huge shift in Japanese society itself”.

1.When the sleep-deprived employees could go home as Japanese government proposed?

A. at 6pm on the last Friday of every month

B. at 3pm on the last Friday of every month

C. at 3pm on the first Friday of every month

D. at 3pm on the every Friday of every month

答案(1)

2.How many years has Shinzo Abe been at the helm of the“Abenomics”until 2017?

A. 4

B. 5

C. 10

D. 15

答案(2)

3.How many Japanese die every year as mentioned?

A. 100

B. 200

C. 300

D. 500

答案(3)

4.What did more than 50 French workers negotiate about in 2017?

A. to define the hours they can sleep at home

B. to define the hours they can ignore their smartphones

C. to reduce the working time

D. to define the hours they can work at home

答案(4)

(1) 答案:B.at 3pm on the last Friday of every month

解释:这项倡议被命名为“Premium Friday”(大意是更有价值的周五)鼓励企业每个月最后一个周五让员工下午3点提前下班。

(2) 答案:B.5

解释:2017年时安倍晋三掌舵其“安倍经济学”的第五个年头。“安倍经济学”(Abenomics)是指日本第96任首相安倍晋三2012年底上台后加速实施的一系列刺激经济政策,最引人注目的就是宽松货币政策。

(3) 答案:B.200

解释:日本每年有至少200人是法律“认可”的过劳死,但劳工团体认为这个数字实际上更多。

(4) 答案:B.to define the hours they can ignore their smartphones

解释:从1月1日起,拥有50名员工以上的法国公司有义务开始与员工协商,界定他们可以忽视智能手机的时间。

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