Toyota Man Died Of Overwork

Photo credit: Luxomedia

Saw this piece of news on Yahoo Singapore this morning. An engineer working on Camry hybrid has died of "karoshi", which in Japanese means literally, death from fatigue due to overwork.

The victim, whose name, had been witheld by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) was said to have clocked 80 hours of overtime per month in the two months leading to his death.

TMC has stated officially that it will improve it's monitoring of it's employees health.

Japanese society which place a lot of emphasis on values like working hard and placing team before self, karoshi has been a growing trend in the official records for the past few decades since early 90s.

I remembered a chat several years ago with a TMC employee from product development. I was told that the company has started then to limit overtime work by monitoring individual employees' working hours.

Employees were required to clock in and out on a daily basis so that their bosses, and sometime corporate HR, could monitor the number of hours worked. Employees who wished to perform overtime work has to get approval from his/her superior!

Being the worker bees that they are, TMC employees were known to circumvent the system. For instance, an employee starting work at 10:30 am under the flexi-hour scheme, would report to work earlier at 8:00am but clock-in at 10:30am. So on paper, it looked as if he/she reported to work on time whereas in fact, this employee has already performed 2.5hrs overtime.

Similarly, employees were also known to clock-off on time but stayed behind to work. As there was simply too much work to do, the bosses tend to be more lenient when it comes to enforcing the overtime limit.

Letting the employees bring the work home to limit overtime work was not a viable option because of the sensitive and confidential work information that the employees were handling.

It blew my mind when I heard this. Throughout my work life, it is usual to know of colleagues who were late but got their colleagues to clock-in on time for them to aviod a pay deduction penalty. In Algeria, truancy was so rampant that the company had to install a fingerprint scanning system for employee clock-in & out!

It is extremely rare to learn of employees who perform more overtime than they should and let it go unreported, considering that working harder is good for performance evaluation. Only in Japan!

The Japanese worker is an epitome of the selfless, dedicated samurai who places his/her team above all else. Stubborn and anal retentive, yes, but nevertheless responsible and dependable. Of course, I do personally know of exceptional cases but it's a valid generalization.

During business trips in Japan, I could experienced several very brief stints of the nerve-wrecking, high pressurizing work culture there. I really hope that major Japanese companies could really review the work environment and work curcumstances in the interest of their employees' health, social and family life.

LABOR BUREAU: JAPANESE MAN, 45, DIED OF
OVERWORK
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press WriterWed Jul 9, 4:08
PM ET

A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car
engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such
findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has
long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe
pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's
blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The
man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to
live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than
80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent
abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American
International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in
January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he
was to leave for the United States.

The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family
to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said.

An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed
the ruling, but declined to comment on the record.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and
said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its
workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from
overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the
Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to
pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed
at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her
application to the local labor bureau for compensation was
rejected.

Buddhist Dog

Please sir, may I have some more?

As part of an effort to boost cost-efficiency of the clergy, Buddhism is setting the trend by outsourcing religious ceremonies to canines. All it takes are three vegetarian chows a day for Benji. =P

Buddhist dog prays for worldly desires

NAHA, Japan (AFP) - - Buddhists clasp their palms together to pray for enlightenment, but Conan, a chihuahua, appears to have more worldly motivations.

The dog has become a popular attraction at a Japanese temple after learning to imitate the worshippers around him.

"Conan started to pose in prayer like us whenever he wanted treats," said Joei Yoshikuni, a priest at Jigenin temple on the southern island of Okinawa. "Clasping hands is a basic action of Buddhist prayer to show appreciation. He may be showing his thanks for treats and walks," he said.

Conan, a two-year-old male with long, black hair and a brown collar, sits next to Yoshikuni in front of the altar and looks right up at the statue of a Buddhist deity. When the priest starts chanting and raises his clasped hands, Conan also raises his paws and joins them at the tip of his nose.

Visitors to the temple look on with curiosity.

"It's so funny that he does it," said Kazuko Oshiro, 71, who has frequented the temple for more than 25 years.

"He gets angry when somebody else sits on his favourite spot. He must be thinking that it's his special place," Oshiro said.

Conan, originally a temple pet, has become so popular that people come in to take
pictures almost every week, the priest said.

Yoshikuni estimated that the temple receives 30 percent more visitors, especially young tourists, than it would otherwise.

"I'm glad that people feel more comfortable visiting the temple because of Conan," he said as he jokingly joined his hands and bowed to the dog.

久しぶりにJAPAN ~ (Part 2) Japanese Food

I'm doing belated posts again. Working on a tight schedule in Japan had kept me busy and after arriving in Morocco, the inefficient IT at the local office thwarted my plans to blog.

When it comes to food, Japanese and Thai food take the cake. Singaporean and Malayan food only come up in second place. The reasons for my preference of Japanese food? The freshness of the ingredients-used and the simplicity of it's cooking. Like most Asians, I like soya-based (shouyu & miso) flavouring in foods. On top of it, the way Japanese foods are presented is so pleasing to the eye, so what's not to like? Lastly, the Japanese are specialists in cooking fish and they are probably even better than the Chinese. By the way, the Algerian and Moroccan ways of cooking fish leave a GREAT DEAL to be desired (Often a waste of good fish!!!)

Unlike my previous trips to Japan, which were almost exclusively in Tokyo, this time I had the opportunity to spend most of my time in Nagoya and also made a slight detour to Fukuoka and Kyoto. Of course, I didn't disappoint myself by sampling a lot of the local delicacies along the way.

When I'm in the middle east, I missed most ramen cooked in thick pork broth (tonkotsu). The one I had in the picture wasn't tonkotsu but miso based.

Japan beef (wagyu) has a marbled texture due to a well-balanced distribution of fats in the meat. I heard that wagyu are fed beer, good grains and they undergo regular massages for their meat to achieve such a texture. The most famous beef brands in Japan are Matsusaka, Kobe, Omi and perhaps others. Among the best Japanese beef, I've tried Matsusaka beef during my previous trips. On this trip, I again had good luck. The chef in the picture is preparing my Omi beef teppanyaki. Hopefully in the future, I can try Kobe beef.

After eating so much meat during my trip, it was a nice change to have something light and yet tasty. The picture shows a Yu Dofu course that I took in Kyoto. Kyoto cuisines (kyoryori) are known for their refined nature and I think tofu has an excellent and refined taste. Yu dofu literally means tofu cooked in a pot of hot water (yu). The entire course contained no meat but is made up of tofu and other vegetables cooked in different style. Very refreshing and healthy.

One of my Japanese director kindly allowed us a short stay at his home in Tajimi (Gifu prefecture). Although he wasn't on the trip, his wife and daugthers hosted us. I'm always eager to experience living in a Japanese traditional home but unfortunately, I never had the chance to participate in any homestay activities when I was still a student. The Tsuzuki family invited us to a simple but very special and delicious dinner of handmade sushi, salad, eggplant and miso soup (photo). Although the stay was short, it was very memorable. The hospitality and kindness of the Tsuzuki family best reflected the "guest-first" mentality of the Japanese Way.

This was my last meal in Japan before leaving for the airport. Mrs. Tsuzuki invited us to a meal at Yamachan's 幻の手羽先, which is known for making good tebasaki (chicken wings). Tebasaki is one of the specialty foods for Nagoya so it was sacrilegious if I didn't eat it before leaving Japan. I found tebasaki to be moderately nice but discoverd another of Nagoya's speciality "とて煮" (toteni)[bottom-right in picture] to be so much more delicious. I've now acquired a craving for this dish, which is made with miso boiled pork "spare parts" and served with rice.

I am definitely going to miss the food in Japan a lot!

久しぶりにJAPAN~ (Part 1)

I'm now in Japan on business trip. It's been a week since my arrival to Japan and I'm still in awe with Japan even after the 7th visit. However, it's only my 2nd visit to Nagoya and I'm beginning to feel that I enjoy this fourth largest Japanese city more than Tokyo. At least, it is not as crowded as Tokyo.

The past week had been the first leg of my trip in which I participated in a TWSM program to learn more about the Toyota Way history and philosophy. It was an enriching and deeply inspiration experience to learn about the men and their values that helped propel a small weaving company into the world's no. 2 automobile maker in just over 70 years. (For the interested, you can get the same information online: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/history/index.html ; http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/traditions/)

Starting this week, it'll just be meetings after meetings. But hey, I'm still in Japan, I can't complain.

Anyway, I'm going to put in more entries about my Japan trip later. Suffice to say, I'm having a great time so far. Well not 100% enjoyable. Just look at some of the food I have to endure:


Or do they mean "herbs"?

Tokyo Trip Afterthoughts...

Like all business trip schedules, this recent trip to Tokyo consisted of the usual routine of movement between hotel, office and restaurant. But this time, six reasons made a great difference to the trip.

Firstly, this visit to Toyota Tokyo Office provided me with the opportunity to meet up with several ex-colleagues when I was in the Asian operations. It was great to see them again, especially Ms. Satake, my Japanese counterpart for several years.

Secondly, I got to eat puffer fish for the first time! That evening I visited my ex-colleagues, Ms. Satake, Ms. Hirai and Ms. Kono invited me for dinner at a nearby restaurant that specializes in puffer fish. The dinner course was served with puffer fish skin appertiser (it tasted better than it sounds), sashimi and the main course,'nabe'(raw meat and vegetables cooked in a pot of boiling soup). We finished the meal with a cup of sake flavoured with grilled fin. The dinner was really good.









Third and surprisingly, I could still carry the entire dinner conversation in Japanese, although not without much help from my hosts. I'm out of practice for months.

Fourth, a colleague fron African operations invited some of us to Karaoke on our last night in Tokyo. We did horrible off-keyed renditions of English pop music but had a great time.

Fifth, we had a few hours of free time before our departure flight back to Lebanon on the last day. We decided to ride the roller coaster in the amusement park of Tokyo Dome City. After which we visited Shinjuku for shopping.

Sixth, I had the chance to shop for stuff for cooking like tsuyu, wasabi, soba noodles, and morinaga chocolates. Now I can prepare some donburi and noodles for my meals.

In Shinjuku, I learnt that the game 'Final Fantasy 12' is due in the stores soon. I stopped playing since Final Fantasy 8. Now, it really started to sound oxy-moronic, just when are they going to release the final 'Final Fantasy'?

(Tokyo) Displacement Disorientation

After 1 hell of a rush packing @ the last minute, with 2 luggauges,
3 in-flight movies later, going through 4 airports altogether (Beirut, Dubai, Osaka, Kansai) and
17 + hours of flight time later - I've finally arrived in Tokyo.

Travel notes...
Movies watched:
Walk the Line (Great performances from Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix)
Sky High (fell asleep watching it....duh)
Elizabethtown (Kirsten Dunst looks very good in the show but someone tells me the point of the movie???)
Confirmed: House MD is a good series (Kudos to Terence for the recommendations!)
Reading "The Time Traveller's Wife" grabbed from Dubai airport bookstore. Engaging story so far...
Drank: 5 cl of JD on the rocks! Taste great but what's 5 cl anyway?

Travel notes today is proudly brought to you by: ... Morinaga Milk Chocolate ...

Yes, it tastes great...

Movie Review - 電車男

Saw this on a flight back from Osaka to KL.

The movie was based on a popular Japanese novel of the same title (obviously or it wouldn't have been made right?). The protagonist is an anime/game/collectible otaku who simply cannot talk to the opposite sex. He turns red, stammers and shivers when he has to talk to any female and so he has always been unattached. He should have killed himself when he was 16 but anyway...

Once in a train, he (trainman) courageously stood up for a female passenger who was being harassed by a drunkard. In return, trainman received a pair of Hermes cups from the lady victim as a token of thanks. Our protagonist geek tells a group of anonymous geeks that he chats online all the time about Ms. Hermes' present and they start jumping to conclusions about "Ms. Hermes" having fallen for him and he should go after her. Soon everybody he chats with throw in their two cents worth of advice/suggestions/tips on how to date Ms. Hermes. Through the advice/suggestions/tips, trainman is bit by bit transformed into a dating machine and swept Ms. Hermes off her feet into his arms...or did he?

Basically a simple love story, what's unique about the movie is the bunch of net-denizens supporting the reluctant trainman on his quest. None of them ever met in real life but unite together to help the trainman. In fact, they are so connected to the internet, they seem to have difficulties in human relationships in real life. And helping trainman became part self-discovery and somehow transformed the way they relate better to the people around them. Morale of the story: Losers help loser, everybody wins!

Somehow, I still think that the trainman should have killed himself when he was 16. He is such a sissy when he talks to women. Perhaps his character was over-acted. Ms. Hermes, on the contrary, is self-assured and calm. Not incredibly pretty but she has character and sort of balanced the cast. The movie would have been over-emotional because of the weepy trainman if not for the little parts of humor dosage. I like best the part where trainman was advised by his "friends" to try all the food in a restaurant that was to be the setting for his date with Ms. Hermes, so that he will know what to order during the date. Haha...=P

Test Drive in Osaka

I love test drives!

To be exact, I love driving at breakneck speed if I know that I am not going to cause an accident. For those not familar with the basic test courses, there's usually four lanes to to a course with four different speed limits. The first lane: 0-50km/h; second lane: 50-100km/h; third lane: 100-160km/h. Finally, the fourth lane slopes upwards at a 45 degrees angle and the car needs a considerable speed to stay on that lane because of the angle. I love the 4th lane!

Actually, the first rule of test drives is not about breaking the sound barrier but to see if the car handles, drives and breaks well under normal driving circumstances. Of course, you are welcomed to test how the car handles at max speed but seldom you need to climb that 4th lane.

But at the test course, everyone will say that the rule is a whole load of bull. Of course you start a slow acceleration to see if it changes gears nicely; then you jam the breaks hard to test the breaking performance. You can test also the steering control and almost every features the car has. Five minutes tops, and then you start to fly on that 4th lane...! (^_^) v

Tokyo Motor Show

At the motorshow today, I plan to do what most people do at motorshows, which was to take plenty of snapshots of pretty cars and the pretty gals beside them... =P The problem with digital cameras is that the battery always seem to run out faster when photo opportunities present themselves aplenty. It's like there's a correlation or something! Anyway, in preparation of such an event, I always have a spare battery on hand.

Things started well and I was happily snapping away with my aging Canon Ixus, when the dreaded battery icon started to flash on my camera screen. As I reached into my bag to get the spare battery, I realized that I left my spare battery with Sakai for some forgotten reasons! Earlier on, our delegation had splitted into two groups and Sakai was leading the other group. The situation likens to being in a chocolate factory and having no appertite! There's so many photo opportunities here but my dead camera can't take pictures.

Solution? Appoint a photographer. The Moroccan GM for sales was so happily snapping at everything and anything, that he willingly obliged to share with me all his pictures. Please enjoy some of them here....

にこにこ．．．
Lexus LFA Concept - Damn bloody nice car!

The new RAV-4 (front)

The new RAV-4 (back) - Think about it, Wanli

香車美女...Hahaha！

Daihatsu Copen: Cute like the MR-S [I'm test driving it tomorrow =) ]

Daihatsu Pretty

VW Polo GTI! The VW booth was the best booth IMO ^_^

King of Cars! 23 Skyline GTR! _/￣\○"

Nice touch by Mini =P

久しぶりに日本！

やっとう，日本出張は現実になりました！2 か月間中近東で働く後，今度の出張は初めてアジアに戻られる旅です．または，今年2番目の日本出張！（＾O＾）ｖ

My Japanese is really going down the drain. Two sentences are the max I can go to express myself in writing! Well, what the heck! =P