Meaning of karoshi | Babel Free

Definitions

Death, such as from heart attack or stroke, brought on by overwork or job-related stress.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“For a while he began to speak Japanese, rather slangy, never having seemed to learn it — karoshi for death from overwork, yakitaori-ya for eatery, and gaijin for clumsy foreigner.”

“Second, we discuss the problem of karoshi, which is unique to Japan. Karoshi has become an increasingly serious problem.”

“[…] I am a workaholic. […] The Japanese have a word for the problem: karōshi. It means “death from overwork.””

“In Japan there is a word for the consequences of extreme busyness: karoshi, which means 'death from overwork'. Karoshi happens when chronic fatigue, stemming from long hours and persistent stress, leads to stroke and heart disease. For most of us, the results of a busyness-induced allostatic load are much less dramatic, but still pretty bad: being 'always on' has been linked to reductions in performance, reduced memory, and increased health risks of all kinds: cardiovascular disease, reduced immune system performance and an earlier death. One expert in the US approximated that 60-90 per cent of all visits to the doctor were stress related.”

“Since the 1980s, labor lawyers and citizens groups have been pushing for changes to the law to recognize karoshi as a serious social issue.”

CEFR level