Japan’s first government white paper on the still largely taboo phenomenon of death by overwork has revealed that a fifth of surveyed companies acknowledge their full-time staff works dangerously long hours.

日本发布了有关过劳死这个仍属禁忌的现象的首份政府白皮书。该白皮书披露，五分之一的受访企业承认，自己的全职员工工作时间长到了危险的地步。

The 280-page report — published almost three decades after Japan legally recognised death driven by overwork, known as karoshi — acknowledged that its contents made for bleak reading.

该报告发布时，日本距离从法律上承认过劳死（即工作过度导致的死亡）现象已有近三十年。这份长280页的报告承认，这个问题形势严峻。

Nearly 11 per cent of companies surveyed said they had full-time staff working at least 80 hours of overtime a month — a level which, by official acknowledgment, brings an increased risk of death from cardiovascular issues and other problems.

近11%的受访企业表示，它们有全职员工每个月至少加班80个小时。官方承认，这样的加班水平会加大因心血管问题及其他问题死亡的风险。

Almost 12 per cent of companies surveyed said they had staff working more than 100 hours of overtime a month.

将近12%的受访企业表示，它们有员工每个月加班逾100小时。

The white paper, which was forced into existence by a 2014 private member’s bill obliging the government take responsibility for preventing deaths and suicide through overwork, follows a year in which karoshi compensation claims surged to a record high of 1,456.

这份白皮书是迫于2014年一份日本普通议员法案的要求发布的，该法案要求日本政府承担起防止过度工作导致死亡和自杀的责任。白皮书公布前的一年里，日本过劳死索赔案件数量达到了1456起的创纪录高点。

Even then, say lawyers who have represented the families of victims, the issue is greatly understated and barely discussed.

过劳死受害者家属的代理律师们表示，即使是那样，这个问题仍被大大淡化，几乎没人讨论。

The survey had hoped to base its research on responses from 10,000 Japanese companies; in fact, it received replies from just 1,743.

这次调查原本希望能获得1万家日本企业的回复并据此开展研究，事实上却只收到了1743家企业的回复。

Government efforts have yet to bite, say labour groups.

多个劳工组织表示，政府的努力仍未见效。

Gentle slogans urging armies of reluctant salarymen let’s work shorter hours, or more practical measures such as turning office lights out at 7pm, are making no visible dent in a work culture that has devised few mechanisms for evaluating achievement beyond simply counting the hours worked.

除了简单计算工时以外，日本的职场文化未能构想出什么其他的业绩评价机制。在这样的职场文化中，用让我们缩短工作时间这样不痛不痒的口号敦促不情愿的工薪人士减少加班、或者推出下午7点办公室关灯等更实际的举措，都没有产生明显成效。

The fundamental problem, said Koichi Nakano, a political scholar at Tokyo’s Sophia University, is that neither the government nor the business sector is especially keen to inform workers of their rights and to uphold them.

东京上智大学(Sophia University)政治学学者中野晃一表示，根本问题在于，政府和企业部门都不是很热心于让员工知晓自身权利和支持他们。

At the heart of the issue is a deeply unenlightened but persistent attitude on the part of the government and management that regards selfless dedication to the company shown through long hours at the office as a prime virtue?.?.?.?in reality it is arguably responsible for the steady decline of the Japanese corporate competitiveness, said Prof Nakano.

中野晃一说：问题的核心在于政府和企业管理层非常落后又固执的态度，他们认为通过长时间呆在办公室展现出对企业的无私奉献是一种至高美德……事实上，可以说正是这种无私奉献导致日本企业竞争力逐步下降。

Reported karoshi deaths in the 2015 financial year ending in March, published by the labour ministry in April, were concentrated on sectors such as social services and construction.

今年4月日本厚生劳动省发布的数据显示，在截至今年3月的2015财年里，媒体报道的过劳死案例集中在社会服务和建筑等领域。

These are on the front lines of Japan’s chronic labour shortage — itself a slow-burning crisis that derives from the country’s long-term demographic decline and historic resistance to large-scale immigration.

这些都是日本长期劳动力短缺最严重的领域——劳动力短缺本身就是一场缓慢发酵的危机，它源于两点，一是就长期而言日本人口趋于下降，二是日本历史上一直抵制大规模引入移民。

The survey underlying the new white paper found 44 per cent of IT companies admitted that some of their employees worked more than 80 hours of overtime a month.

新白皮书所依据的调查发现，44%的IT公司承认，它们的一些员工每月加班超过80个小时。

But the problem is more widespread.

但这个问题存在于更普遍的领域。

The publication of the white paper came just a week after a Tokyo labour standards office ruled that the suicide of young graduate recruit at the Dentsu advertising agency had been a case of karoshi.

就在白皮书发布一周前，东京一个劳工标准办公室裁定，电通(Dentsu)广告公司的一名刚毕业不久的年轻新员工自杀，属于过劳死案例。

The family of Matsuri Takahashi, 24, said she took her life after racking up 105 hours of monthly overtime.

24岁的Matsuri Takahashi的家人表示，她在月加班时间超过105个小时后结束了自己的生命。

She had worked in Dentsu’s digital advertising division — the unit at the centre of a developing scandal that involved overcharging clients, and which Dentsu blamed on staff shortages.

她在电通的数字广告部门工作，该部门目前正处于一桩仍在发酵之中的、涉及多收客户费用的丑闻的核心。电通将丑闻所涉情况归咎于人手短缺。

Across the full- and part-time workforce, the average hours worked by individuals are falling very slightly, said the white paper, but that includes the rising cohorts of part time workers.

白皮书称，综合来看，全职和兼职员工的平均个人工作时长略有下降，但这其中有兼职劳动者数量日益增多的因素。

Among full-time staffers, on whom karoshi-generating pressures fall most heavily, approximately 21 per cent of Japanese work an average of at least 49 or more hours a week — far above the 12.5 per cent and 16 per cent rates reported in Britain and the US respectively.

全职员工是承受导致过劳死的压力最严重的。日本约21%的全职员工平均每周至少工作49小时，远远高于英国（12.5%）和美国（16%）的比例。