Toyota will boost overtime pay to their assembly line workers for their voluntary efforts to improve production quality, the company said Thursday, in the latest effort in Japan Inc. to quell growing criticism about a workaholic corporate culture. The decision follows a court ruling that found a Toyota worker, who collapsed at a plant, had died of overwork, or "karoshi." Such rulings are surprisingly common in Japan and allow the family of the deceased to collect government compensation for work-related deaths.
Japanese tend to work long hours because many companies demand worker loyalty in exchange for relative job stability. Workers' putting in free overtime is so common here a widely recognized phrase describes the practice, "saabisu zangyo," or "service overtime." But public criticism about free overtime has been growing.