The suicide of a manager at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Oita Prefecture who worked for six straight months without taking a day off has been ruled a work-related accident.

The industrial accident certification was dated Nov. 6, 2024, The Asahi Shimbun learned. The half-year is considered an exceptionally long period of continuous work for a certification case.

In July 2022, the 38-year-old man committed suicide, leaving a note that said such things as: “Long hours with no breaks are the norm,” “No matter how hard I work to fill shifts, it’s just too hard for me,” and “Being a convenience store manager is simply another way of being taken advantage of.”

The man’s bereaved family has demanded the operator of Japan’s largest convenience store chain take more responsibility for labor management of employees working for its franchisees.

NO TIME OFF

According to his bereaved family, the man was hired as a full-time manager at another 7-Eleven store that opened in 2015. The owner of that store was mainly responsible for managing the employees and dealing with problems with customers.

In 2019, the owner opened a new 7-Eleven store and instructed the man to serve as its manager.

However, the owner was not stationed at this store, so the man was responsible for everything, from ordering and displaying merchandise to hiring employees and creating work shifts.

He was often required to come to work on short notice to deal with customers.

“Around the time he was appointed manager of the store, his duties increased, such as filling in for part-time workers who were suddenly absent, and he could no longer take time off,” the man’s widow said.

The couple married in March 2021, and for about a year and four months from the wedding to the man’s death, he rarely took a vacation day, she said.

The store’s work rules state that employees are allowed at least one day off per week.

However, in a separate agreement between labor and management, employees can work on five holidays per month, meaning there is no upper limit on consecutive work days.

Even after he came home late at night, he would receive work-related phone calls. For half the week, he slept only about two hours a night.

Soon, he started yelling in his sleep.

When his wife asked why he looked so gloomy, he simply said, “I’m fine.”

But he began to lose his appetite.

“He was a kind man, and even when things got messy, he would accept it for the time being,” she said.

In his suicide note, he wrote the names of his wife and three children, including a baby, in hiragana, and apologized, “I’m sorry.”

ONSET OF DEPRESSION

The wife filed an application for workers’ compensation, claiming her husband had developed a mental disorder due to overwork.

Under criteria for workers’ compensation for mental disorders, a period of about six months leading to the onset of illness is used as the evaluation period on whether work caused a strong psychological burden.

Except in cases in which daily working hours are particularly short, continuous work for more than one month is considered a strong psychological burden.

The labor standard inspection office with jurisdiction over the 7-Eleven store in question found that the man had developed severe depression the day before he committed suicide. It also confirmed he had not taken a single day off in the six months before his illness.

The office concluded the reason for the continuous work was “to ensure the smooth operation of the 24-hour store, including filling in (for other staff) on their shifts,” and “to ensure that the store was staffed, including for late-night work.”

The owner of the 7-Eleven store claimed that the manager had problems other than overwork.

However, the labor office stated that the owner’s claim was “non liquet” and concluded it was a work-related rather than an off-the-job injury.

If a worker is certified as having suffered a work-related injury, the workers’ compensation insurance, for which the employer pays the premiums, will cover the pension for victim’s bereaved family and funeral costs.

A lawyer representing the store owner did not respond to an Asahi Shimbun interview request.

NO RESPONSIBILITY

The manager was employed by the store owner who had a franchise agreement with the head office of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., the operator of the convenience store chain.

In fact, the manager’s work hours had been sent to the head office of Seven-Eleven Japan.

According to his bereaved family, when they questioned the head office about its responsibility for labor management, the head office responded: “The deceased entered into an employment contract with the store owner, and the owner is fully responsible for compliance with the Labor Standards Law and other laws and regulations. (The head office) does not assume any responsibility.”

The head office also emphasized there are about 20,000 franchise stores in Japan.

“It is physically and objectively impossible for the head office to check each employee’s work status individually,” the bereaved family quoted the company as saying.

Kyoko Ota, a lawyer representing the bereaved family, said data on the working hours of franchise employees are transmitted to the head office, and the head office pays the wages on behalf of the franchise owners.

“The head office could have checked to see if (the manager) was working continuously for long periods of time and demanded the franchise store make improvements,” Ota said.

The man’s widow said that the head office should take responsibility for the working conditions of employees at franchise stores since it allows the franchise owners to use the 7-Eleven name.

“I would like to see the head office do a better job of instructing and educating its franchisees that it is not right for workers at convenience stores, even those that are open 24/7, to work for six months without taking a day off at all,” she said.

SEVERE WORKING CONDITIONS

A spokesperson for Seven & i Holdings Co., parent company of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., said it was not aware of the labor standard inspection office’s decision, and that it was not in a position to comment about individual franchisees.

“Store operations are based on a clear division of roles between member stores and the head office,” the spokesperson said. “The management of human resources, including hiring, training and labor management, is the responsibility of member stores.”

The severity of working conditions at convenience stores has long been pointed out.

In a 2019 survey conducted by the labor ministry, nearly 30 percent of employees at franchised convenience stores said they went to work “almost every day.”

The survey also revealed that deaths from overwork due to long working hours at the stores had occurred.