Ten Years After Daughter's Suicide from Overwork, Mother Calls for More Reform

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(Warning: This article contains references to suicide.)

Matsuri Takahashi was 24 and newly hired at advertising giant Dentsu when she took her own life. She had faced grueling overtime and bullying from her supervisors. December 25, 2025 marked the 10th anniversary of her suicide.

Since then, her mother, Yukimi, has devoted herself to giving lectures aimed at building a society that protects the lives and health of employees. She has also supported families who have lost loved ones to work-related causes.

After Matsuri's death, it emerged that she had been working more than 100 hours of overtime per month. She was also subjected to severe harassment, including remarks from her supervisors such as, "Your overtime hours are a waste for the company."

*Matsuri Takahashi in 2013 | Matsuri and her mother during a hike in Hakone, Kanagawa, in January 2015. (Courtesy of Yukimi Takahashi)*

A Death that Shocked the Nation

Efforts to prevent deaths from overwork have advanced, including the phased implementation of acts to promote workplace reform starting in 2019. However, the number of compensation cases recognized for work-related mental health issues continues to rise.

The legislation sets limits on overtime. In principle, it is capped at 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year, and even under special circumstances, it cannot exceed 720 hours annually. Including work on holidays, overtime must stay below 100 hours in any single month and average no more than 80 hours over a two- to six-month period.

The laws also call on employers to make efforts to introduce a "work interval system," which ensures a minimum rest period between the end of one workday and the start of the next. They also require employers to ensure that employees take paid leave.

Rising Mental Health Claims

According to the labor ministry, 241 workers' compensation cases for brain and heart diseases were approved in FY 2024, a figure that has remained largely unchanged for the past few years. However, cases involving mental disorders rose to 1,055, marking the sixth consecutive year of increase.

*Shinagawa Station in the morning rush hour, Minato Ward, Tokyo. (©Sankei by Kazuya Kamogawa)*

In line with a provision requiring a review five years after the laws took effect, discussions on possible revisions are now underway at the Labor Policy Council.

Shortly after taking office, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed the health ministry to examine whether working-hour regulations could be eased, provided that workers' physical and mental health were protected and employee choice was respected. The move has drawn strong opposition from labor unions and other groups.

A Mother's Message, 10 Years On

Since 2017, Yukimi has delivered an annual lecture at Katoh Gakuen Gyoshu High School in Shizuoka Prefecture, Matsuri's alma mater. At a lecture in March 2025, she urged students to "value their lives in order to live."

On December 24, 2025, a day before the 10th anniversary of her daughter's death, Yukimi read aloud a personal account of her experience.

She recalled that shortly before Matsuri died, the two had gone out together to see a play and have dinner: "I could never have imagined that, just ten days after Matsuri treated me to a meal and said, 'Mom, please stay healthy forever,' I would be going to see her after her body had grown cold."

*Matsuri Takahashi and her mother at a restaurant in December 2015. (Courtesy of Yukimi Takahashi)*

Calling for Life-Saving Changes

Yukimi also addressed Dentsu in her account, writing that she wanted to "keep watch to ensure that management is carried out in a way that respects the human rights of all people."

While work-style reform is often said to be making progress, she urged the government to "carefully examine how work is structured across the country and strengthen countermeasures," noting that deaths and suicides related to overwork have not declined.

Fighting back tears, she read another passage: "Ten long years have passed since that day. No matter how many seasons come and go, time feels frozen for me. No matter how much time passes, Matsuri remains my precious, beloved daughter."

At a press conference later the same day, Yukimi stood before reporters with a portrait of her daughter. She warned, "Without realizing it, people become ill or are driven toward death. I want people to know that this is what overwork does."

SEEKING HELP? If you are in Japan and having trouble with mental health due to workplace harassment, bullying, or for any other reason, someone is ready to help you in English at TELL Japan. Telephone (free dial inside Japan) 0800-300-8355. If you are outside of Japan, please check your national health authorities for guidance in your country.