Firms named and shamed on illegal overwork by Japanese government

Japan has taken the unprecedented step of naming more than 300 firms that the authorities accuse of violating labour laws, to help prevent death by overwork.

The name-and-shame tactic follows growing public outrage over a long-hours culture in the country, which gained notoriety following the suicide of a young worker at the Dentsu (Frankfurt: 763961 - news) ad agency in 2015 - ruled as "Karoshi", or death through overwork.

The labour ministry's list includes 334 companies that have received warnings for excessive overtime and other violations between last October and this March.

They include Dentsu and Panasonic (Swiss: MAELI.SW - news) , though the authorities said that not all firms found to have broken rules had been publicly identified.

The name-and-shame tactic is part of efforts by the government of Shinzo Abe to shake-up labour laws in a bid to give employees greater protection, including overtime caps.

Corporate Japan has been no stranger to controversy in recent years, for varying reasons.

They include accounting scandals at Toshiba (Swiss: TOSH.SW - news) and Olympus - involving the setting of unrealistic profit targets and covering-up losses respectively.

Just last year, carmaker Mitsubishi (LSE: 7035.L - news) admitted duping customers on fuel efficiency on every vehicle it had sold in Japan since 1991.

A spokeswoman for Panasonic told the Reuters news agency the company took its labour overtime violation case seriously and pledged it would work to prevent such future cases.

Dentsu declined to comment.