Fate of media worker Miwa Sado, 31, piles pressure on authorities to address large number of deaths linked to labour practices 
 
 Japan has again been forced to confront its work culture after labour inspectors ruled that the death of a 31-year-old journalist at the country’s public broadcaster, NHK, had been caused by overwork. 
 
 
 
 Miwa Sado, who worked at the broadcaster’s headquarters in Tokyo, logged 159 hours of overtime and took only two days off in the month leading up to her death from heart failure in July 2013. 
 
 A labour standards office in Tokyo later attributed her death to karoshi (death from overwork) but her case was only made public by her former employer this week. 
 
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 Sado’s death is expected to increase pressure on Japanese authorities to address the large number of deaths attributed to the punishingly long hours expected of many employees. 
 
 The announcement comes a year after a similar ruling over the death of a young employee at Dentsu advertising agency prompted a national debate over Japan’s attitude to work-life balance and calls to limit overtime. 
 
 Matsuri Takahashi was 24 when she killed herself in April 2015. Labour standards officials ruled that her death had been caused by stress brought on by long working hours. Takahashi had been working more than a 100 hours’ overtime in the months before her death. 
 
 Weeks before she died on Christmas Day 2015, she posted on social media: “I want to die.” Another message read: “I’m physically and mentally shattered.” 
 
 Her case triggered a national debate about Japan’s work practices and forced the prime minister, Shinzō Abe, to address a workplace culture that often forces employees to put in long hours to demonstrate their dedication, even if there is little evidence that it improves productivity. 
 
 The government proposes to cap monthly overtime at 100 hours and introduce penalties for companies that allow their employees to exceed the limit – measures that critics say still put workers at risk. 
 
 
 
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 In its first white paper on karoshi last year, the government said one in five employees were at risk of death from overwork. 
 
 More than 2,000 Japanese killed themselves due to work-related stress in the year to March 2016, according to the government, while dozens of other victims died from heart attacks, strokes and other conditions brought on by spending too much time at work. 
 
 According to the white paper, 22.7% of companies polled between December 2015 and January 2016 said some of their employees logged more than 80 hours of overtime each month – the level at which working hours start to pose a serious risk to health. 
 
 Research shows that Japanese employees work significantly longer hours than their counterparts in the US, Britain and other developed countries. Japan’s employees used, on average, only 8.8 days of their annual leave in 2015, less than half their allowance, according to the health ministry. That compares with 100% in Hong Kong and 78% in Singapore. 
 
 Sado, a political reporter, covered the Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections and national upper house elections in June and July 2013. She died three days after the upper house elections. 
 
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 Masahiko Yamauchi, a senior official in NHK’s news department, conceded that Sado’s death reflected a “problem for our organisation as a whole, including the labour system and how elections are covered”. 
 
 Yamauchi said NHK had waited three years to make Sado’s death public out of respect for her family, according to Kyodo news. 
 
 In a statement issued through NHK, Sado’s parents said: “Even today, four years on, we cannot accept our daughter’s death as a reality. We hope that the sorrow of a bereaved family will not be wasted.” 
 
 In the UK the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. 

 Overwork had caused the death of a 31-year-old NHK female reporter in 2013, according to the labor standards inspectors, the public broadcaster said Wednesday, providing further evidence of the extreme working conditions many Japanese employees endure. 
 
 Miwa Sado, who belonged to the broadcaster’s center in Tokyo and died of congestive heart failure in July 2013, worked 159 hours of overtime with only two days off in the one-month period prior to her death, a local labor standards office concluded in May 2014. 
 
 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has been seeking to improve working conditions in the country following the suicide of a new recruit at advertising giant Dentsu Inc. in 2015 due to excessive working hours. 
 
 As a reporter in charge of covering the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Sado worked on the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election and the House of Councilors election from June to July 2013. She died on July 24, three days after the Upper House election. 
 
 NHK said it kept track of her working hours through personal statements and time cards but acknowledged there were areas requiring improvement. 
 
 Sado joined the broadcaster in 2005 and started to work at its bureau in Kagoshima Prefecture. She was transferred to Tokyo in July 2010 and was in charge of covering the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for two years. 
 
 Masahiko Yamauchi, senior official at NHK’s News Department, said the incident was not a personal matter but a “problem for our organization as a whole, including the labor system and how elections are covered.” 
 
 On why it had taken more than three years to make the case public, Yamauchi said the broadcaster took into account the wishes of her family. Sado’s family said they wanted to ensure such an incident never happens again. 
 
 “Even today, four years after, we cannot accept our daughter’s death as a reality,” Sado’s parents said in a comment released by NHK. “We hope that the sorrow of the bereaved family will never be wasted.” 
 
 The suicide of 24-year-old Dentsu employee Matsuri Takahashi in April 2015 caught national attention, and the conclusion by labor standards inspectors in September 2016 that it was caused by sparked debate on the harsh working conditions in the country. 
 
 Dentsu is also on trial for labor practice violations, with a ruling set to be handed down on Oct. 6 by a Tokyo court.
– Japanese reporter Miwa Sado averaged five hours of overtime per day during a month in the summer of 2013 while covering Tokyo metropolitan government elections as well as a national House of Councillors election. It all proved too much. Sado, a 31-year-old who worked for public broadcaster NHK, died of congestive heart failure three days after the House of Councillors election in what NHK now reveals was the result of overwork, reports the Japan Times. As the latest in a trend of such deaths in Japan, the case is sure to lead to increased scrutiny on Japanese work culture, which features incredibly long hours. According to NHK, it is only now being made public on the wish of Sado’s family that such a death never happen again. "Even today, four years after, we cannot accept our daughter's death as a reality," say Sado's parents. "We hope that the sorrow of the bereaved family will never be wasted." Following the overwork death of a 24-year-old woman in 2015, Japan's government found 20% of workers were at risk of a similar fate and proposed limiting overtime hours at 100 per month, reports the Guardian. Sado, labor inspectors found, had clocked 159 hours of overtime and taken just two days off in the month before her death. "With this in mind, we are working on reforming our working styles, including reviewing the work procedures for reporters, and we will further seek to secure the health of our staff," NHK tells the Tokyo Reporter. (This company faces charges after an overwork death.)