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Anti-Karoshi Activism in a Corporate- Centered Society: Medical, Legal, and Housewife Activist Collaborations in Constructing Death from Overwork in Japan

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Anti-Karoshi Activism in a Corporate- Centered Society: Medical, Legal, and Housewife Activist Collaborations in Constructing Death from Overwork in Japan UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Anti-Karoshi Activism in a Corporate- Centered Society: Medical, Legal, and Housewife Activist Collaborations in Constructing Death from Overwork in Japan A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Rika Morioka Committee in charge: Professor Christena Turner, Chair Professor Richard Biernacki Professor Steven Epstein Professor Richard Madsen Professor Masao Miyoshi Professor Laurence Palinkas 2008 Copyright Rika Morioka, 2008 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Rika Morioka is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2008 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page………………………………………………………………….... iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………… iv List of Tables and Figures………………………………………………………. v Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………. vi Vita……………………………………………………………………………….. vii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………… vii Chapter 1 Introduction…..………………………………………………………. 1 I. Death of a Worker………….. ……………………………………...…….... 2 II. Background………………………………………………………………... 5 III. Anti-Karoshi Activism……………………………………………….……. 11 IV. Theoretical Tools and Arguments…………………………………………. 19 V. Resurgence of Karoshi - Why 1988? ........................................................... 39 VI. Is Karoshi Real? Note on the Constructionist Approach ……………….… 49 VII. Data Sources and Limitations …………………………………………….. 50 VIII. Chapter Descriptions ……………………………………………………… 53 Chapter 2 Doctors for “Democratic Medicine”: The “Discovery” of Karoshi in the Early 1970s………………………. 55 I. Introduction………………………………………………………………... 56 II. Beginning………………………………………………………………….. 66 III. Early Cases of Karoshi…………………………………………………….. 71 IV. Role of Labor Unions …………………………………………………….. 77 V. Lay Origin and Physician’s Political Ideology …………………………… 81 VI. Resistance of Medical Community ………………………….………….... 89 VII. Politics of Karoshi in Medical Community ……………………...………. 101 VIII. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….. 108 Chapter 3 Legal Professionals: The Construction of Karoshi in Court …….………………………… 111 I. Introduction …………………………………………………………… 112 II. Beginning of Karoshi Legal Activism ………………………………….. 116 III. Identity of the Lawyers …………………………………………………. 125 IV. Strategies of the Lawyers ……………………………………………….. 136 V. Going Beyond Compensations ………………………………………….. 144 VI. Why not Workers and Labor Unions? …………………………………… 150 VII. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………. 163 iv Chapter 4 Litigant “Housewives”: Battle of the Marginalized…………………………………………….. 166 I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 167 II. Strength of the Marginalized ……………………………………………. 176 III. Becoming an Activist: From Housewife to Litigant ………………….... 180 IV. Motivations of the Litigant Women and the Meanings of Workers …….. 199 V. Social Costs of Becoming a Litigant Activist ………………………...... 211 VI. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………. 230 Chapter 5 Debates: Politics of Duty, Responsibility, and Benevolence…………………... 233 I. Introduction …………………………………………………………….. 234 II. Workers’ Compensation System and Lawsuit …………………………. 243 III. Civil Lawsuits against Corporations …………………………………… 251 IV. Moral Arguments and the Paradox of Karoshi Trial …………………… 256 V. Gap between Workplace and “Duty to Consider Safety” ……………… 268 VI. Assumption of No Worker Agency ………………………………….…. 281 VII. Responsibility for Overworking: Coercion or Freewill? ……………...... 284 VIII. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………… 288 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Accomplishments in Japan, and the Transnational Diffusion in Asia ...291 I. Accomplishments of Anti-Karoshi Activism ……………………………. 292 II. Transnational Diffusion of Anti-Karoshi Activism and the Concept of Karoshi ……………………………………………… 294 III. Transnational Adaptation Process in South Korea ……………………… 302 IV. Transnational Adaptation Process in China …….………………….......... 310 V. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….. 327 Bibliography ..…………………………………………………………………… 330 v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.1: The Number of Workers’ Compensation for Karoshi……………… 15 Table 2.1: The Development of Karoshi and Anti-Karoshi Activism ……….. 75 Figure 2.1: Pathophysiology of Karoshi ……………………………………….. 99 Figure 5.1: New Guidelines for Workers Compensation on Overwork-related Cerebral and Heart Diseases .……………………………………….. 243 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is grateful for a number of fellowship and grants provided by the University of California, Pacific Rim Research Program, US Department of Education, and Joseph Neiman Fellowship. I also wish to express my deepest gratitude to the kind encouragement and assistance provided by my dissertation adviser Christena Turner at the University of California, San Diego, throughout my graduate career. I am grateful, as well, for the efforts of my other dissertation committee members, Steven Epstein, Richard Biernacki, Richard Madsen, Laurence Palinkas, and Masao Miyoshi, whose thoughtful comments guided my work in fruitful directions. I am also indebted to Robert Scott North at Osaka University who generously offered his assistance during my field work, and introduced me to a network of key informants. That network includes Morioka Koji at Kansai University, Matsumaru Tadashi, and Iwaki Yutaka in Osaka without whose assistance this study would have been impossible. Finally, I thank my parents, and close friends and relatives both in Japan and the United States who provided their encouragement over the years. vii VITA 1997 Bachelor of Arts, University of Washington. 1997-2005 Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, Department of Asian Studies, Department of International Studies, University of California, San Diego. 2000 Master of Arts, University of California, San Diego. 1999-2002 Research Assistant, Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego 2008 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego. PUBLICATIONS Japan Occupational Safety and Health Resource Center, Tokyo Japan, “Kankoku no karoshi to kigyou sekinin”[Karoshi in South Korea and Corporate Responsibility]. Vol . 302. September 2003. Karoshi, Death from Overwork: From the Perspective of Sociology of Health and Illness, Field paper submitted as a requirement for Master of Arts in Sociology. September 2000. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Sociology Studies in Sociology of Health and Illness Professor Steven Epstein Studies in Culture and Society Professors Richard Madsen, Christena Turner, Richard Biernacki viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Anti-Karoshi Activism in a Corporate-Centered Society: Medical, Legal, and Housewife Activist Collaborations in Constructing Death from Overwork in Japan by Rika Morioka Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, San Diego, 2008 Professor Christena Turner, Chair The claim that excessive work can cause death is increasingly recognized in Japan, where over 10,000 victims are believed to die annually from karoshi, death from overworking. This study explores the process in which the issue of karoshi became a major social problem in 1990s and continues to be a source of legal disputes in Japan. Through a year long participant observation of anti-karoshi activism and over 120 in- depth interviews with medical and legal professionals, labor unions, victims’ colleagues and families, and government officials, it examines the complex multiple processes in which the concept of karoshi was constructed and mobilized as a resistance against corporate power. Karoshi suddenly became a public issue in the late 1980s, mirroring the nation’s self-reflection on what it means to be an affluent society. The “discovery” of karoshi was first made in the 1970s, as a result of medical summary of workers’ knowledge, in which a group of pro-labor physicians defined the problem as a “rationalization disease” and coined the term as a warning against intensifying and mechanizing production processes. ix After simmering in the background for 15 years, a group of progressive legal professionals successfully mobilized wives and mothers of karoshi victims for legal activism, framed the issue as a health concern of the average household, and institutionalized ways of addressing karoshi grievances. The participation of housewife activists, who emphasized their mother and wife-hood in gaining the support of the public, galvanized anti-karoshi activism. Debates surrounding karoshi legal cases are infused with moral rhetoric of duty, responsibility and benevolence in labor relations. Capitalizing on liberal Japanese labor laws, anti-karoshi activists stress the moral and legal responsibilities of employers to protect employees’ wellbeing. Despite their success in impacting law and policy, their emphasis on employers’ duties ironically results in their inability to address the broader context of overworking and the root causes of the complex issue. Furthermore, their strategic focus on workers’ compensation paradoxically results in affirming single- minded devotion to work required in corporate culture and the image of Japanese workers as “corporate warriors” that they set out to oppose in the first place. x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION My Dream When I grow up, I want to be
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