The death of a 62-year-old man working for an electrical equipment construction company in Toyama City was recognized as a work-related accident because of long working hours and other reasons, and the bereaved family filed a lawsuit in court on June 6 seeking compensation for damages, claiming that the company neglected to manage its work and engaged in excessive work.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of a 12-year-old man who died in December and was an employee of Hokuriku Electric Works, an electrical equipment construction company in Toyama City.

According to the complaint, the man was rehired after reaching retirement age in August four years ago and was working as a site manager, but he collapsed at home in December and died of bleeding stomach ulcer at the hospital where he was transported.

The man worked about 62 hours of overtime in the most recent month before his death and about 4 hours in the month before his death.

Last month, the Toyama Labor Standards Inspection Office certified the man's death as a work-related accident due to long working hours and stress as a site manager.

The bereaved family filed a lawsuit in the Toyama District Court on June 6 seeking damages of approximately 7300 million yen from the company, claiming that they "caused death by engaging in excessive work that clearly caused a strong physical and mental burden even after neglect of business management and reemployment."

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, there are very few cases where digestive diseases are recognized as work-related accidents, so Tadashi Matsumaru, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs at a press conference, said, "Digestive diseases are not stipulated in the standards for death from overwork set by the government. I said.

Hokuriku Electric Works comments on the lawsuit

Regarding the lawsuit, Hokuriku Electric Works told NHK, "We will make a decision after confirming the contents of the complaint."

Regarding the man's recognition as a worker's compensation, he said, "We take the facts very seriously, and we sincerely pray for the repose of the souls of the deceased employees. We will continue to strive to promote health and productivity management so that the same thing does not happen again."