Young Japan banker’s suicide after power harassment recognized as work-related

The death of a then 25-year-old regional bank employee who took his own life after being harassed by a boss, including being ordered to work on holidays, has been recognized as work-related, sources close to the case have revealed to the Mainichi Shimbun.

The employee of The Towa Bank Ltd., a second-tier regional bank headquartered in the Gunma Prefecture capital Maebashi, died in May 2017, just two months after being transferred to a new department. It has been determined that his suicide was induced by multiple factors including being under heavy pressure from work duties he’d previously had no experience with and being subjected to power harassment by his boss, and that he had been psychologically driven into a corner and was in a state of overwork. His family plans to demand compensation from the bank.

The man joined the bank in the spring of 2014 upon graduation from college, and was in charge of retail services targeting clients such as sole proprietors, among other assignments. In April 2017, his fourth year at the bank, he was transferred to the Kawagoe branch in Saitama Prefecture, and took charge of corporate sales for the first time.

On May 31 that year, he was scheduled to meet a client, but never showed up, and was later found collapsed at his home in Saitama Prefecture and was confirmed dead. A note found at his home read, “I was distressed over my work. I had no one to turn to, and had no way out.”

According to the man’s family and a lawyer representing them, the worker had been scolded by his boss in an overbearing manner in front of his colleagues after moving to the Kawagoe branch, with remarks such as, “You’ve failed to boost your (sales) figures,” and, “You’re slow in creating documents for approval.”

The boss would sometimes call in the worker and other subordinates to their home on holidays, in what they called a “juku” (cram school) under the boss’s name. The worker had complained to a friend, “My boss makes me work at their home on Saturday or Sunday at short notice.”

Need to make it easier to seek advice at workplaces

After the man’s death, his family applied for workers’ compensation with the Kawagoe Labor Standards Inspection Office. The labor office determined in August 2023 that the worker had suffered psychological burdens due to the transfer to a different department. As corporate sales are deemed a “star” position, he had felt cornered due to high expectations from others around and the heavy workload, while his workplace was not one where it was easy to seek advice regarding distress at work, the labor office pointed out. Coupled with power harassment by his boss, the worker developed an adjustment disorder, which led to his suicide, the office concluded.

Yoshihide Tachino, a lawyer representing the worker’s family, commented, “As a measure to cope with workers’ mental health, employers should attach importance to following up on workers with no experience in their assignments and create a workplace where employees find it easy to seek advice.”

The Towa Bank commented to a Mainichi Shimbun inquiry, “We consider that a very unfortunate thing has happened. We’re unaware of the labor standards inspection office’s results, but we will make a sincere response if the bereaved family contacts us.”

(Japanese original by Akihiko Tsuchida, Osaka City News Department)

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