Time USA - October 23, 2017

14 TIME October 23, 2017

The Brief

COLLEGE

DIVERSITY

The share of

Hispanic high

school graduates

starting college

has risen to

a record high,

according to data

from the Census

Bureau. These

percentages

show high school

grads ages 18 to

24 who enrolled

in college in 1996

and in 2016,

by race:

Hispanic

35%

1996

47%

2016

Black

36%

1996

43%

2016

White

45%

1996

47%

2016

Asian

61%

1996

62%

2016

DATA

WOLVES LOATHINGHundreds of sheep are driven through the French city of Lyon on Oct. 9 as part of a protest
against the government’s protection of wolves. Farmers say the predators’ attacks on their livestock are causing financial
losses. Wolves were hunted to extinction in France in the 1930s but returned in the 1990s after crossing the Alps from
Italy. Now around 350 roam in packs across the country.Photograph by Laurent Cipriani—AP/REX/Shutterstock

JAPAN IS BEING FORCED TO CONFRONT ITS
working culture after national broadcaster NHK
revealed on Oct. 4 that reporter Miwa Sado, 31,
died of heart failure in 2013 after clocking nearly
160 hours of overtime in a month. Workers in
Japan routinely take short vacations and work
long hours—a lifestyle that is taking its toll:

WORK-LIFE IMBALANCEKaroshi, meaning “death
by overwork,” first came to light in the 1980s
with reports of blue collar workers dropping
dead. By 2015 more than 2,000 suicides and
96 deaths by brain and heart illnesses were
linked to it. Campaigners put annual fatalities
at 10,000.

INEFFECTIVE LEGISLATIONJapanese lawmakers
passed a law in 2014 to preventkaroshi, which
compelled employers to find ways to reduce
hours but failed to introduce penalties for non-
compliance. Today nearly 1 in 4 companies

◁ Sado

took only

two days

off in the

month

before her

death

in Japan say some employees put in as much as

80 hours of overtime a month.

OFF THE BOOKS The culture of overwork is not only

a problem for Japan. Almost 40% in Turkey say they

work over 50 hours a week, compared to only 21% in

Japan where, at least on paper, the average Japanese

worker spends fewer hours in the office per year

than the average American. But statistics fail to cap-

ture “service overtime,” unpaid extra hours that em-

ployees feel obligated to work every month. Until

employers move to rectify that, more Japanese will

work themselves into early graves. —TARA JOHN

LIFESTYLE

Japan’s deadly

culture of overwork

SADO: ANN NEWS/YOUTUBE