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Premature death rate high for Mainichi employees

Journalists working in war zones and dictatorships put their lives on the line. In Japan, at peace and nominally democratic, the stakes are rather lower. Not as low as might be supposed, however.

The premature death rate among the allegedly overworked and underpaid employees of the major daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun is shockingly high, reports Shukan Shincho (March 6). It is conspicuously higher than rates at other newspapers, according to the Mainichi employees’ union publication Warera. Citing Warera, Shukan Shincho provides figures for 2007: 2.35 premature deaths per 1,000 Mainichi employees, as against a Japanese newspaper average of 1.3 deaths per thousand. 

If Warera’s calculations are correct (a Mainichi official insists they are not), this has been going on for years. In the 11 years from 1996 through 2006, Mainichi’s annual death rate was above the occupational average six times. During those 11 years, rates among other newspaper people ranged from 0.75 to 1.75 per thousand. Mainichi's ranged from 1.0 to 2.5. 

“Well, naturally,” a Mainichi journalist tells Shukan Shincho. “Our company is hurting financially, so compared to other newspapers, our working conditions are very hard.” 

How hard? For example: “On night shift, reporters from other papers have cars with drivers. We have to get around by train and bus. That’s a strain in itself, but sometimes it means standing around outside for hours waiting for a guy we're covering to come home. Physically and mentally, it’s exhausting.” 

“We’re understaffed,” adds another Mainichi journalist. “Reporters from other papers have a photographer with them. Not us — we have to take our own photos. One reporter has to do everything — make contacts, conduct interviews, take photos ... It’s too much!” 

Nor is it only reporters who are under this kind of pressure. “It’s hard also for the people in the ad department,” Shukan Shincho hears from a non-editorial Mainichi staffer. “We have a lower circulation than the Asahi and Yomiuri newspapers, so our ad people have to hustle twice as hard to attract clients. And with our low salaries, we can’t afford housing in Tokyo, so we’re forced to live out in Chiba Prefecture, or Saitama, or Kanagawa. This means longer commutes and less sleep.” 

This is all too bad — bad enough, undoubtedly, to win sympathy from those in and out of the news business whose working conditions are better. But are Shukan Shincho and Warera really justified in suggesting it is life-threatening? Certainly not, says a Mainichi public relations official, who is in fact brusquely dismissive. “The figures you’ve indicated,” he tells Shukan Shincho, “were arrived at by means of an analysis whose methods were arbitrary.

According to our own investigation, our death rate over the past 15 years has been 1.33 people per thousand, which is no higher than other news organizations.” 

This downplays what one journalist calls the “cumulative exhaustion” involved in working for a company whose precarious finances require it to save every yen it can. For Mainichi’s 3,200 employees, says Shukan Shincho, the day-to-day struggle goes on.

March 6, 2008

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Japan is nominally democratic!
eastokyo   (Mar 6 2008 - 14:48)	Rate | Report

Sorry
eastokyo   (Mar 6 2008 - 14:50)	Rate | Report

Premature death rate high for Mainichi employees
Nessie   (Mar 6 2008 - 15:18)	Rate | Report

Premature death rate high for Mainichi employees
pachisuro   (Mar 6 2008 - 15:21)	Rate | Report

"we're forced to live out in Chiba,
Sarge   (Mar 6 2008 - 15:45)	Rate | Report

Premature death rate high for Mainichi employees
Altria   (Mar 7 2008 - 14:35)	Rate | Report

nessie
smd   (Mar 13 2008 - 12:43)	Rate | Report

Premature death rate high for Mainichi employees
apecNetwork   (Mar 16 2008 - 00:03)	Rate | Report

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