[TinyRedLeaf]

Family sues Japanese firms for working Chinese intern to death

Mito, Ibaraki (March 6, Sun): The bereaved family of a 31-year-old Chinese intern whose death in 2008 was recognised as resulting from overwork has filed a lawsuit against his employer and an agency that supplies foreign trainees to companies in Ibaraki prefecture.

The lawsuit, filed last Friday with the Mito District Court, seeks 57.5 million yen (US$698,000) in damages for the death of Mr Jiang Xiaodong. It is the first civil suit to be filed in which a foreign intern or trainee allegedly died from overwork.

Mr Jiang, who worked at Fuji Denka Kogyo, a metal-processing company in Itako, Ibaraki prefecture, died of acute heart failure in June 2008 while sleeping in the firm's dormitory, according to the complaint.

Last November, the Kashima Labor Bureau recognised that Mr Jiang had died from overwork as his overtime exceeded 150 hours a month. The plaintiffs claimed that long hours of work imposed by the company resulted in his death.

A government-sponsored training and internship programme for foreigners began in 1993, under which they were permitted to stay in Japan for up to three years. Over the past five years, 40,000 to 70,000 trainees have been permitted to work in Japan annually.

Most of them are given medical checkups before arriving in Japan. However, according to a survey by the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization, which handles part of the programme's operations, 16 foreign interns or trainees died of brain or heart diseases in fiscal 2008, while nine similar deaths were reported in fiscal 2009.

All of the interns were in their 20s to 40s.

The aim of the programme is to have foreign workers acquire skills, but many of them are believed to come to Japan because they earn more money here than in in their home countries. Companies have therefore found it easy to exploit them.

Mr Jiang, who hailed from an impoverished farming village, was no exception. He came to Japan in 2005 in the hope of earning enough to provide his daughter with a good education.

THE DAILY YOMIURI