A 31-year-old Japanese woman died after doing so much overtime in one month, she suffered heart failure.
Miwa Sado, a political journalist at the country's national broadcaster, NHK, passed away four years ago, however the circumstances leading up to her death have only just been revealed now.
In the month prior to her death, Sado worked an additional 159 hours and 37 minutes of overtime, reports Business Insider, which equates to almost six extra hours of work per day including weekends. The journalist had been covering two elections, one regional and one national, and had therefore only taken two days off in the month before she died.
Three days after the elections ended, she was found unconscious but holding her mobile phone in her bed on July 24th 2013, reports the Asahi newspaper. She had died as a result of congestive heart failure.
Following Sado's family's request, the labor office in Tokyo ruled her death was caused by "karoshi," a Japanese word meaning "death from overwork." Shortly before her death, Sado had emailed her dad saying: "I am too busy and stressed out and think about quitting my job at least once a day, but I guess I have to hang on."
Japanese law states that employees should only work for 40 hours a week, or eight hours a day with a one hour break.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com/uk. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.