Tweet of the Week #38: Animation Studio Employee Sick After Working 220 Hours Overtime

Despite renewed calls for change, Japan still ranks as one of the top countries with the longest working hours in the world (but not the highest productivity rate, go figure). Illegal unpaid overtime is a common practice at many companies—a phenomenon exemplified by the legally accepted term karoshi or “death by overwork”.

Cool Japan urgently needs to take some time off!

Modern slavery at Japanese animation studios

Spoiler alert: Animation studios have a reputation for their insane work schedules, enslaving their animators till they collapse. Or worse.

The anime series we love binging on are actually brought to us via the invisible cost of studio employees’ work-life balance. The work culture in the animation industry is fueled by the need to keep up with the demand, and it’s unsurprisingly a competitive field that aspiring artists are desperate to get into.

Salaries for animators are low, too, and most companies have a cap for overtime, beyond which you simply don’t get paid—no matter how much you work.

It’s a Madhouse

Founded in 1972, the animation studio Madhouse is known for a reel of famous hits: Black Lagoon, Nana, Death Note, Summer Wars, as well as frequent collaborations with well-known manga artists.

However, Madhouse has recently come under fire for erasing 150 hours of one of their employe’s overtime and denying responsibility when he was diagnosed with mental health-related illnesses. The news was tweeted by Shohei Sakakura, a youth labor rights activist and editor-in-chief for the youth labor advocacy group and magazine Posse.

月393時間の長時間労働により救急車で運ばれた制作進行Aさんのタイムカードを150時間削らせたアニメ制作会社マッドハウス。元どおりの残業代支払いを拒否したうえ、月末に倒れて救急車で運ばれ、精神疾患の診断も出たのに「業務によるものか判断しかねる」と責任を全否定。220時間残業して倒れたのに？ pic.twitter.com/Auy2ra8Da4

— 坂倉昇平＠ブラック企業ユニオン（総合サポートユニオン） (@magazine_posse) June 25, 2019

月（つき）393時間（じかん）の長時間労働（ちょうじかんろうどう）により救急車（きゅうきゅうしゃ）で運（はこ）ばれた制作進行（せいさくしんこう）Aさんのタイムカードを150時間削（けず）らせたアニメ制作会社（せいさくがいしゃ）マッドハウス。元（もと）どおりの残業代（ざんぎょうだい）支払（しはら）いを拒否（きょひ）したうえ、月末（げつまつ）に倒（たお）れて救急車で運ばれ、精神疾患（せいしんしっかん）の診断（しんだん）も出（で）たのに「業務（ぎょうむ）によるものか判断（はんだん）しかねる」と責任（せきにん）を全否定（ぜんひてい）。220時間残業して倒れたのに？

= Animation studio Madhouse erased 150 hours on an employee’s time card after he was taken [to the hospital] by ambulance following 393 hours of work in a month. In addition to refusing to pay overtime, they completely denied any responsibility for the employee’s subsequent diagnosis with mental illness, declaring “they cannot judge whether it is due to work or not.” Despite him collapsing after 220 hours of overtime?!

The production assistant at Madhouse has been trying to seek compensation for his unpaid overtime which would amount to three million yen in total. The bargaining process started earlier this year, but it’s been a tough battle to even get the company to admit that things might be wrong.

In the middle of negotiations, Madhouse issued a statement denying the working conditions at the studio could have led the employee to develop dizziness and psychosomatic disorders. In short, they said, “we’ve done nothing wrong.”

How to politely say that you can’t do something in Japanese

With that cheery story, it’s time to level up your Japanese and learn how to state that you are unable to do something either because it is impossible or too difficult.

So far, unless you’re familiar with super formal Japanese, you’ve probably used the negative form the verb できる (to be able to) as できない.

• 判断できない = cannot judge

However, in a very formal context, できない wouldn’t be polite enough. So, you’ll use the JLPT N2-level suffix かねる instead.

You need to add the suffix to the verb ます stem (minus ます).

• 判断します = 判断し + かねる = 判断しかねる = cannot judge
• 分かります = 分かり+かねる = 分かりかねる = cannot understand

Vocabulary

For more on learning Japanese

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