Employee commits suicide due to overwork, Dentsu president resigns

Mr. Tadashi Ishii - president of advertising company Dentsu (Japan) apologized and resigned for not preventing his new employee from overworking, leading to pressure to commit suicide.

Mr. Tadashi Ishii - President of Dentsu company, bowed his head to apologize at a press conference on December 28 - Photo: Kyodo/REUTERS

According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, Mr. Tadashi Ishii - president of Japan's leading advertising company Dentsu, has just announced his resignation next January to take responsibility for the suicide of a 24-year-old employee of the company due to overwork.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Mr Ishii expressed "deep regret for not preventing this new employee from overworking". "I sincerely apologize," he said.

The press conference was held on December 28 after Japan's labor ministry asked prosecutors to investigate Dentsu and a company executive on suspicion of forcing employee Matsuri Takahashi, who joined the company in April 2015, to work long hours without reporting them properly, leading to her suicide on December 25, 2015.

Accordingly, Dentsu and Takahashi's direct boss are suspected of violating the Labor Standards Law by forcing her and another employee to work illegally long hours between October and December 2015. Specifically, Takahashi's overtime hours increased from about 40 hours/month to more than 100 hours/month.

An investigation by the Tokyo Labor Standards Inspection Office released last September confirmed her suicide was a case of karoshi - meaning death by overwork.

According to the Japan Times, before jumping to her death, Takahashi showed signs of depression. Her family also accused her of being harassed over the phone when her boss told her that if she felt she was working too much, it was because her work efficiency was too low.

Attending the press conference, Dentsu vice president Shoichi Nakamoto said: "It cannot be denied that this is a case of telephone harassment, due to the fact that she (Takahashi) lacks experience in the job," but he also affirmed that there was no illegal behavior at the company.

According to VNE