karoshi

For a while he began to speak Japanese, rather slangy, never having seemed to learn it — karoshi for death from overwork, yakitaori-ya for eatery, and gaijin for clumsy foreigner.

1976, Bill Henderson, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, Pushcart Press, page 207

Second, we discuss the problem of karoshi, which is unique to Japan. Karoshi has become an increasingly serious problem.

2006, Ronald J. Burke, Research Companion to Working Time and Work Addiction, page 158

In Japan there is a word for the consequences of extreme busyness: karoshi, which means 'death from overwork'. Karoshi happens when chronic fatigue, stemming from long hours and persistent stress, leads to stroke and heart disease. For most of us, the results of a busyness-induced allostatic load are much less dramatic, but still pretty bad: being 'always on' has been linked to reductions in performance, reduced memory, and increased health risks of all kinds: cardiovascular disease, reduced immune system performance and an earlier death. One expert in the US approximated that 60-90 per cent of all visits to the doctor were stress related.

2008, Tony Crabbe, Busy, Preface, at page xi

Since the 1980s, labor lawyers and citizens groups have been pushing for changes to the law to recognize karoshi as a serious social issue.

2016 November 30, Emiko Jozuka and Yoko Wakatsuki, “Death by overwork: Pressure mounts on Japan to act”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 14 May 2025