It is doubtful that the government's proposed limit on overtime hours will serve its intended purpose of curbing the chronically long working hours of the nation's company workers, whose tragic consequences have included the deaths and suicides of overworked employees. By setting the legal cap so high, the regulation can rather have the effect of the government endorsing the practices of corporate employees clocking a level of overtime hours that is known to have detrimental effects on health. The Abe administration, which is calling for the cap on overtime hours as part of its "work-style reform" agenda, should think twice about the proposal.

The Labor Standards Law limits work hours to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week. Based on an agreement with its labor union, a company can have its employees work up to 45 hours of overtime a month. But the management and the union can agree to add a special clause to such an accord that allows overtime work that exceeds the monthly limit for up to six months a year. Since there is no legal maximum on how far the monthly limit can be exceeded, the amount of overtime the company's employees can be made to work effectively has no ceiling.

In the government-led discussions that involved representatives from business and labor circles, the Abe administration has proposed that overtime hours be capped at 720 hours a year, or 60 hours a month on average, and that the monthly upper limit can be extended during busy seasons to up to 100 hours or an average of 80 hours over a two-month period. The government has urged business and labor leaders to reach a consensus on the basis of the proposal. Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) chief Rikio Kozu met on Monday and agreed to conclude their talks by mid-March.