Summary Indictment Inappropriate

Having concluded that the legal procedure of Tokyo Regional Prosecutors Office on violation of Labor Standard Act by Dentsu was not appropriate, Tokyo Summary Court decided on Wednesday to have a criminal trial on the case. It is highly unusual in Japan for a court to dismiss decision of prosecutors office for summary indictment. The case of a young woman worker who killed herself with excessively hard work will be examined in an open court with testimony of board members of the company she worked for.

Matsuri Takahashi, a 24 year-old freshwoman of Dentsu, killed herself with depressive sentiment caused by her constant overtime works in December 2015. Tokyo Prosecutors Office made a summary indictment against Dentsu, arguing that the company should have taken measures to avoid illegal overtime work. The office did not indicted three directors related to Takahashi’s work, not finding malicious behavior in supervising her labor.

Tokyo Summary Court thought it not enough. It has decided that the situation of illegal overtime work in a major company with six thousand workers must be too complicated to be examined only with the papers submitted by prosecutors office. It is needed to know who supervised labor time or why her registered working time was so shorter than actual shift she had experienced.

Tokyo Prosecutors Office recognized that the directors had realized illegal overtime work for four workers and monthly overtime work had been nineteen hours for a person at most. However, nineteen hours of overtime work is not the level that a worker has to commit suicide. The court may have realized that the truth cannot be detected without actual testimony of the supervisors in Dentsu.

Prosecutors office resisted the decision of the court. The office investigated the record of workers’ shift and forced labor in Dentsu, finding no malicious intention of the supervisors. It is possible, however, that overtime work and positive loyalty for a famed and influential company has been a normal sense among the workers and the managers has been dependent on that corporate culture.

The court must have thought that such a culture has to be changed. Voluntary work can disturb the balance of power between employer and employee, causing unilateral governance of employer. In a society with growing gap between the rich and poor, it is necessary for the government to protect right of workers to maintain public health and stable management of company. To earn positive reputation, companies have to appeal appropriate practice in labor.