I was saddened and surprised to read about the Toyota workers karoshi case in the Dec. 15 issue of your paper. Surprised because I'd always considered Toyota as being one of the more enlightened and forward looking Japanese giants.

As a onetime management consultant and adviser on good management practices in the "Square Mile," London's main business area, I cannot recall a single case of a British businessman passing away as a result of overwork. That is not to say that British workers are lazy, but rather that their sense of priorities in life, especially as regards to the family, are somewhat different to that of the company culture ingrained in the Japanese worker.

On the other side of the coin, however, we encountered cases where factory management had to fight off workers keen to do overtime on Sundays because there was double pay and minimum supervision. In those situations it was a case of overpay and underwork with little possibility of karoshi!

There is no doubt that part of the problem in Japan is the severe shortage of workers with the right skills. If, however, the government was to enact legislation to introduce a legally binding maximum number of overtime hours that need be worked, coupled with the mandatory taking of the full annual holiday entitlement, then employers would be forced into doing something radical about training programs to produce more workers with the requisite skills to counter the problems of a graying population and a falling birthrate.

The depiction of a "snow fight" between candidates running in the U.S. election, and Time's Person of the Year medal added on Putin's already heavily titled suit in the "Views of the World" on page 16 of the Dec. 29 -- Jan. 5 issue, were cleverly drawn cartoons that can't be found in Japanese newspapers.

Very interesting!

I always enjoy reading the Weekly. Lately, I've noticed the length of articles in the newspaper has become shorter. I think the articles have been trimmed to their perfect length; great for recommending to others and a useful tool for starting discussions.

However, I also enjoy the longer articles in the second half of the newspaper that feature lots of criticism and analysis. Please continue with the good work and the just-the-right-length stories.

I have been subscribing to the Weekly for more than six months. I first read it with a dictionary in hand, but now I use the dictionary less often and feel that my reading speed is increasing.

The reason I have continued to read the Weekly is because I believe the articles contain sharper views and stronger opinions toward the news than articles seen in Japanese newspapers. These factors make the Weekly very interesting.

The Japan Times Weekly: January 19, 2008
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