OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Monday ordered Kansai Medical University Hospital in Osaka Prefecture to pay about 135 million yen in compensation to the parents of an intern who died of overwork in 1998.
The ruling in the case of Hirohito Mori, who died at 26, marks the first time a Japanese court has acknowledged that a trainee doctor's death was caused by overwork, according to the plaintiffs' lawyer.
Presiding Judge Michiki Sakamoto said, "The university neglected its duty to consider Mori's safety."
The parents had been seeking 172 million yen in compensation from the hospital.
According to the ruling, Mori graduated from Kansai Medical University in March 1998, became an intern in the hospital's otolaryngology department three months later and died in his apartment on Aug. 16 the same year.
He left for work daily at 7:30 a.m. and worked until between 8 and 11:30 p.m. on weekdays and until around 2 p.m. on weekends, according to the ruling. He did not have time to eat lunch as he would be busy administering intravenous drips, taking blood or observing operations, it says.
Hiroshi Yamasaki, head of the hospital's administrative section, said the hospital could not release a statement until the ruling has been reviewed.