Japan: Filipino trainee’s death ruled from overwork, a first since 2011

As lawmakers discuss a bill to improve the working conditions of foreign trainees in Japan, the first documented case of one such worker dying from “karoshi,” or death by overwork, has been confirmed in Japan. The death of a 27-year-old Filipino in 2014, who was working 78.5 to 122.5 hours of overtime a month, was ruled as death by overwork by the labor ministry’s Gifu Labor Standard Inspection Office in August. It marked the first such case among foreign trainees in Japan after the government began collecting data in fiscal 2011. (Image: Reproduction/Asahi) Joey Tocnang died of heart failure at his company dorm in Gifu Prefecture in April 2014, three months before his scheduled return to the Philippines. He hailed from the island of Luzon and came to Japan as a trainee in 2011 to support his family, including his wife, Remy, 28, and 5-year-old daughter, Gwyenth. At a casting...