Employee of Japanese fast-food chain Sukiya dies while working alone

There’s really no need to have restaurants serving food between midnight and 6am, is there?

Following the incident, Sukiya said in a statement it will make "further efforts to improve the working environment for its employees," while a number of industries in Japan have been facing with a chronic shortage of labor, partly because of the country's aging population.

Look forward to many more depressing stories like this under the Kishida New capitalism which means slaving away at low wage work with no retirement prospects unto death.

Japan have been facing with a chronic shortage of labor, partly because of the country's aging population.

That is not because of the country's aging population, that is because of the very low salary you pay!

That is not because of the country's aging population, that is because of the very low salary you pay!

Yes. That's the real reason, not the aging population (which is a "scapegoat" excuse). Inflation is going up and people can live well on low wages.

Is not just about having another hand to help out in case something happen to you, but also makes you feel more safe being in the store working. I wouldn't feel at ease at all if i had to work alone on my shift. Having another person there provide comfort for the mind too.

ignore Sukiya.just boycott them.

Not the point of the story but makes me wonder that the restaurant couldn't have been that busy or a customer would have noticed.

@buffalo Really good point

Sukiya has had many similar problems from towels being found in the food and basic unsanitary conditions. They notoriously overwork their employees and are a Black company! So many employees quit soon after working there and often leave with a sour taste in their mouth about the working environment.

R.I.P.

May that lady rest in peace !

Yes, this is very tragic and the case gained now public attention, but anyway, that’s a strange discussion and has nothing to do with Sukiya or exploitation. Do you really think the situation is different from other people who work or live alone? A self-employed designer or programmer at home , a small shop’s owner etc, or a single high aged senior in his home, even a single mother with her toddler and all similar…. They all don’t have a second staff or team member or other helping hands available all the time or during their daily ‘shifts’ too, in contrary, they are even much nearer the edge than an employee of a big chain , networked throughout the country like Sukiya.

Terribly sad situation, it is possible she could have been saved if anybody was present at the time she collapsed so I hope her family are seriously considering asking for a logical amount of compensation for this avoidable risk. One thing is to do things for yourself, another is for a chain that understand this (and other) rare occurrence to be possible but still neglect to have someone else in the place to act.

This story is more about work safety. Of course you can say the company is trying to reduce operational cost by letting staff to work alone.

There’s really no need to have restaurants serving food between midnight and 6am, is there?

tell that to truck drivers that work around the clock

Great solution for the labor shortage in low wage jobs... plenty of people from South and Southeast Asia willing to work those jobs and one only needs a very basic level of Japanese to do them. Convenience Stores have already embrace this concept as has McDonald's, Burger King, etc. There's no valid reason to whine of a labor shortage when you can easily support visas for people quite willing to do the job.

Not surprising.

Everyone knows Japanese companies will literally work you to death.

In this case, they can say it wasn't their fault and probably get away with it.

Working alone is actually really nice though as an introvert. I don't see the big deal when it's something like this where there really an occupational hazard at play. I mean this woman could have just as easily died alone from a heart attack alone in her apartment but because it happened at work suddenly this is some workplace safety issue? Seems like people are just eager to find fault.

There’s really no need to have restaurants serving food between midnight and 6am, is there?

tell that to truck drivers that work around the clock

Maybe think about it for more than 3 seconds and realize there is no reason for truck drivers to be working around the clock either. It's absolutely ridiculous how overworked people are....

Yes. That's the real reason, not the aging population (which is a "scapegoat" excuse). Inflation is going up and people can live well on low wages.

My apologies. I meant can't live well on low wages.

Ruling elites are loathe to embrace immigration as a solution to labour shortages. They know only too well that imported foreign labour is a double edged sword that won’t put up with horrendous working conditions and miserably deficient remuneration beyond that necessary to get established. The corrosive example of foreign workers repudiating the 我慢 ethic would not necessarily be a bad thing, but rather an opportunity; inherent in the Chinese character for ‘crisis’.

Ruling elites are loathe to embrace immigration as a solution to labour shortages. They know only too well that imported foreign labour is a double edged sword that won’t put up with horrendous working conditions and miserably deficient remuneration beyond that necessary to get established. 

Uh, what? Ruling elite tend to love wage depressing immigration the world over. Japan should be thankful that they are seemingly an exception. And working conditions? Have you ever heard of the UAE and their quasi-slave labor migrants from SE Asia? Migrant workers are far more willing to put up with horrid working conditions than native populations.

The article says that the lady died of a heart attack. There is nothing indicating that this was related to work conditions. She was working the late shift, there were no customers, so unfortunately nobody to notice that she had passed out.

Japan should be thankful that they are seemingly an exception.

We’re about to find out what happens when the immovable rock of Japanese exceptionalism intersects with the irresistible force of the Globalist imperative. The examples you adduce are not comparable with the situation here, where ruling elites wish they could, but are increasingly no longer able to secure the allegiance of the mass to do jobs they’re now more likely to disdain. Caught in a cleft stick of their own making; their only recourse is to promote those very trends which underpin the ongoing unraveling of the 我慢 ethos they once championed. Poetic justice!