英语阅读：“过劳死”与日本的加班文化

美联英语提供：英语阅读：“过劳死”与日本的加班文化

小编给你一个美联英语官方试听课申请链接：/?tid=16-73374-0 For a nation struggling to make sense of deflation, duty and the shock of a graduate trainee being worked to death at one of Japan’s most prestigious companies, “Premium Friday” seems to provide a glimmer of hope.

对于一个挣扎着搞明白通缩、责任以及一名实习生在日本最具声望的企业之一过劳死事件所带来的打击的国家来说，“超值星期五”(Premium Friday)似乎提供了一丝希望。Following revelations of ruinously excessive overtime demands at Japan’s largest advertising agency, Dentsu, the government wants bosses to order their overworked, sleep-deprived employees home at 3pm on the last Friday of every month.

在日本最大的广告公司电通(Dentsu)被曝要求其员工进行摧残身心的过度加班后，日本政府希望老板们命令过度工作、睡眠不足的雇员在每个月最后一个周五的下午3点下班回家。Proponents of the idea, which include the powerful Keidanren business lobby, argue that workers could use the time for recuperative snoozing or enjoy more leisure activities and rev the economy out of deflation.

该想法的支持者(包括强大的商业游说团体日本经济团体联合会(Keidanren))认为，工人可以利用这段时间打个盹恢复体力、或享受更多的休闲活动，推动经济加快走出通缩。

It may not, say many labour experts, be quite that simple.

很多劳工专家称，事情可能远没那么简单。

In Japan, quality time has long been measured in minutes. But pressure is piling on Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, now entering his fifth year at the helm of the

“Abenomics” economic revitalisationprogramme. Legal claims of death by overwork have risen to a record during his reign, and many see labour reform as badly overdue.

在日本，与家人共享天伦之乐的“优质时间”一直是以分钟来计算的。但在“安倍经济学”经济复兴计划进入第5年之际，日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)受到越来越大的压力。在安倍任期内，过劳死引发的诉讼数量上升至创纪录高点，同时很多人认为劳动法律改革早就应该出台。

Mr Abe is discovering — as leaders before him have — that any attempt to reform Japan’s lon g-hour culture stumbles. Attitudes have adapted from postwar nation rebuilding to the 1980s desire for dominance, through to the protect-my-job-at-all-cost workaholism of the past two deflationary decades. What has remained constant is punishing overwork.

正如历届日本领导人所发现的那样，安倍正在发现，改革日本加班文化的任何尝试都会受挫。多年来，人们对加班的态度不断改变：从战后国家重建、发展到上世纪80年代渴望主导地位、进而演变为过去20年通缩时期“不惜代价保住我的工作”的工作狂心态。始终不变的是令人疲惫不堪的过度工作。

“There is a structural and deep-rooted problem with the working practice not just of Dentsu but other companies,” says Hi roshi Kawahito, a lawyer advising the family of Matsuri Takahashi, a Dentsu graduate trainee whose suicide has roused the Japanese public from a traditional indifference towards stories of punishing overwork.

“工作实践中存在一个根深蒂固的结构性问题，不仅是在电通，其他公司也有，”为高桥茉

莉(Matsuri Takahashi)的家人提供法律咨询的川人博(Hiroshi Kawahito)表示。高桥曾是电通的实习生，她的自杀唤醒了日本公众，使他们对过度工作的故事不再像以往那样无动于衷。The true extent of overtime worked in Japan, adds Waseda University labour law professor Makoto Ishida, is “impossible to calculate but undoubtedly very very huge”.

东京早稻田大学(Waseda University)劳动法教授石田真(Makoto Ishida)补充称，日本加班的真实程度“无法估计，但无疑非常非常严重”。

Last month, when Japan’s labour ministry referred Dentsu and one of its executives to prosecutors over Ms Takahashi’s death, the company said in a statement: “We take the in cident seriously. We offer our apology to those concerned for causing such a situation.”

上月，日本厚生劳动省(Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare)就高桥自杀一事把电通及其一名高管移交检方查办，该公司在一份声明中表示：“我们认真对待这起事件。我们为造成这一事件向相关人士道歉。”

Ms Takahashi’s death came to light late last year after her parents went public with the conclusion of the local labour standards bureau that their daughter had been a victim of karoshi —the legally recognised “death by overwork” syndrome from which, officially, at least 200 Japanese die every year, and which labour groups believe silently claims many more.

去年底，当高桥的父母公开了当地劳动标准局作出的关于她死于过劳死(karoshi)的结论后，这一事件由此曝光。过劳死是法律承认的“过度工作致死”综合症，根据官方数据，日本每年至少有200人死于过劳死，而劳工组织认为未报告的实际数字高得多。