Karoshi: Salaryman Sudden Death Syndrome

Much current Japanese popular discussion centres around the sudden death, at an early age, of Japan′s hard‐working white‐collar workers: karoshi – death from overwork – or Salaryman′s Sudden Death Syndrome. Officially it does not exist as the Government and big business are hesitant to legitimatize the phenomenon because of the response which, both local and international, it would evoke. Nonetheless, it is a common phenomenon. Describes karoshi, defines the extent of the phenomenon, and analyses its future impact on Japan and the world.