Photo/Illutration Takashi Mukoyama, right, and lawyer Tadashi Matsumaru hold a news conference in Kofu on Oct. 22 after a court ordered the Kofu city government to pay compensation for the suicide of Mukoyama’s son. (Takuya Ikeda)

KOFU—A court here ordered the Kofu municipal government to pay about 58 million yen ($382,430) to the parents of an overworked city official who committed suicide in 2020.

The parents of the official, Atsuji Mukoyama, were seeking about 80 million yen in their lawsuit against the city, but they were satisfied with the Kofu District Court’s decision on Oct. 22.

“I’m grateful for the ruling, as it was considerate of our feelings,” Mukoyama’s father, Takashi, 77, said at a news conference.

The court recognized a relationship between Mukoyama’s death at the age of 42 and the long hours he put in for the municipal government.

He started working for the Kofu city government in 2002. He was assigned to a newly established division to streamline clerical work in 2019.

On Jan. 17, 2020, when he was a section chief in charge of a number of part-time workers, he killed himself.

In the ruling, Presiding Judge Kazunori Nitta recognized that Mukoyama worked 148 to 209 hours of overtime a month during the two months before he died.

The judge said Mukoyama’s boss at that time should have correctly known how many hours Mukoyama was working and should have reduced his workload or changed his duties.

However, the boss did not do anything beyond verbally confirming what time Mukoyama left the office at night.

The judge recognized that Mukoyama developed a mental illness from his overwork, and that he died after the municipal government breached its duty to take care of its employees.

In his announcement after the court’s decision, Kofu Mayor Yuichi Higuchi said, “We will review the ruling and decide our response.”

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