Victim of National Policy

A young field supervisor in the construction of New National Stadium for Tokyo Olympic 2020 committed suicide this march. His family applied compensation for the accident in July, claiming that his suicide had been caused by serious depression in his hard work to catch up the schedule. He must be a victim of national policy to make the international sports event the showcase of reconstruction of Japan.

Due to the delay of decision on architectural design, the schedule of construction of New National Stadium became tight, coercing hard working on the workers. Because the first design, made by “queen of the unbuilt” Zaha Hadid, which won the competition in 2012, was too expensive, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe turned down the design and held another competition in 2015. So, the construction of the stadium started last December with delay for one year and two months.

The field supervisor, 23, was hired by a construction firm under the joint venture led by Taisei Corporation in the spring last year and was assigned to the post last December. While his job was to dig holes with pile driver and strengthen the basis by mixing the soil with cement, scarcity of labor made his job hard and difficult. At the peak period in February, he left his home at 5 in the morning and get back at 0 in the midnight. His excessive time for working amounted to 193 hours in February.

The supervisor was missed on March 2^nd and found dead in Nagano April 15^th. “With limit of body and soul, I could not find any way but this. I am sorry, my family, friends and my colleagues. Forgive me who could not find anything like this,” he left such a memorandum. His parents demanded application of their son’s death to compensation for worker’s accident in July. They argued that exhaustion brought by excessive work caused mental depression leading to killing himself. His company admits that the situation of the working may have affected to his suicide.

In the reviewing article, Asahi Shimbun indicated a possibility of power harassment also causing his death. There are witnesses of him scolded by his boss with harsh words like “Why can’t you do that?” or “Are you stupid?” Leaving the supervisor on the job, the boss often went to dinner. Those activities must have put a heavy mental pressure on the supervisor.

The pressure is originally coming from Prime Minister who picked Tokyo Olympic as his important political agenda. Abe raises success of the Olympic as one of the most important target to achieve. Lawmakers often visited to the construction site to check how Abe’s agenda was going, which caused temporary intermission of the construction. Coercive policy produces victims.