After Akiko married in 2021, her new husband worked around the clock as a store manager at a 7-Eleven in Japan’s southern Oita prefecture. He did not have a single day off before he died by suicide almost 16 months later, she said.
“He himself had said several times to the owner that it was too hard and he wanted to quit. But there weren’t enough staff, and because he was the manager, there was no one to replace him,” said Akiko, who asked to speak under a pseudonym. “It would have been better if I forced him to quit sooner no matter what. All I have now are regrets.”
Last year, the prefecture’s Labour Standards Inspection Office found that the 38-year-old man’s suicide was related to overwork after securing evidence that he had worked without a day off for six months.