The suicide of an overworked employee of advertising giant Dentsu Inc. has led the company’s president to announce his resignation. This case has shown that excessive working hours is a serious matter over which top management should be held accountable.

At a press conference, Dentsu President Tadashi Ishii acknowledged that the company’s peculiar corporate culture allowed excessive overwork, saying, “We were proud of seeking 120 per cent, and of not declining any job offer.” He also admitted his responsibility for the failure of the company’s management to put the brakes on this excess.

Dentsu had already seen an employee commit suicide due to overwork in the past. In recent years, the company was issued a series of advisories by a local labour standards inspection office to correct its practice of illegal long overtime work. After that, Dentsu took measures, including launching a “No overtime day” campaign, but failed to prevent another tragedy from happening.

It can hardly be said that Dentsu management had a full grasp of the working conditions at the company, nor that they worked hard on reform.

Over the suicide of Dentsu’s new recruit Matsuri Takahashi, who killed herself late last year due to overwork, the Tokyo Labor Bureau referred Dentsu as a corporation and one of its senior officials to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Law. In the wake of this, Ishii was driven to announce his resignation.

The labour authorities built the case unusually fast, less than two months after Dentsu’s offices were raided in November. It can be said that the authorities were prompted by their concern over the excessive working hours that became common practice at this well-known Japanese company.

Drastic reforms needed

Dentsu and the senior official are suspected of having forced Takahashi and other employees to work long hours, exceeding the upper limit stipulated in the labour-management agreement, and forcing them to underreport their working hours as below the limit. As similar practices have been found elsewhere, the labour bureau intends to continue its investigation into the company with an eye on pursuing charges against top executives, including a board member in charge of labour matters.

A full picture of the case must be revealed to prevent a recurrence.

Raised by a single mother, Takahashi joined Dentsu after graduating from the University of Tokyo. In a note released ahead of the first anniversary of her daughter’s death, Takahashi’s mother wrote, “She continued making efforts to make her dream come true,” and “She was hoping to contribute to society by living her life.”

It is a grave sin for Dentsu to crush a young employee’s hopes and dreams.

Dentsu is not the only company connected to this issue. According to the nation’s first white paper on “karoshi,” or death from overwork, which was released in October, 23 per cent of companies surveyed said that their employees logged more than 80 hours of overtime a month, which is regarded as the karoshi line. The management of other companies also need to take this issue seriously.

Correcting long working hours is a major pillar of the government’s “work-style reforms.” If employees are exhausted, productivity declines.

A ban on overtime work without reducing workloads would result only in increasing the number of employees who bring work home. In light of this, companies are urged to improve business results without pushing their employees too much by scrutinizing the amount and substance of work the companies receive. To that end, it is the management’s duty to exercise wisdom and ingenuity.

SEOUL – A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant on Saturday for the head of the national pension fund, the world’s third largest, in a corruption scandal that has led to President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, an official said.

A special prosecutor probing the wide-reaching scandal has sought the arrest of the National Pension Service (NPS) Chairman Moon Hyung-pyo on charges of abuse of power and perjury.

The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant saying evidence supported the charges against Moon, an official at the court said, but did not provide further details.

The special prosecutor’s office said on Thursday Moon had acknowledged that he had pressured the fund to approve an US$8 billion (S$11.6 billion) merger between two Samsung Group units last year while he was Health and Welfare Minister.

He denied during a parliamentary hearing in November that he had exerted pressure on the NPS, which is run by the ministry, to back the merger. His lawyer in a court hearing on Friday about the warrant again denied Moon had presured the NPS, local media reported.

The merger last year of Samsung Group affiliates Cheil Industries Inc and Samsung C&T Corp has become central to the investigation of the scandal that led parliament to vote this month to impeach Park.

The merger has been criticised by some investors for strengthening the founding family’s control of Samsung Group, South Korea’s largest “chaebol”, or conglomerate, at the expense of other shareholders.

The NPS, which had 545 trillion won (S$654 billion) under management at the end of September and was a major shareholder in the two Samsung affiliates, voted in favour of the merger without calling in an external committee that sometimes advises it on difficult votes.

The special prosecutor’s office is probing whether Samsung’s support for a business and foundations backed by the president’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, at the centre of the corruption scandal, may have been connected to the NPS support for the merger.

Park, 64, is accused of colluding with Choi to pressure big businesses to make contributions to non-profit foundations backing presidential initiatives.

She has denied wrongdoing but apologised for carelessness in her ties with Choi, a friend for four decades, who has also denied wrongdoing. Choi is in detention while on trial.

Park’s impeachment is being reviewed by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days from the Dec. 9 parliament impeachment vote, to uphold or overturn it and reinstate the leader.

A large crowd gathered in central Seoul for a 10th consecutive weekend rally to demand that Park step down immediately. They listened to speeches and music ahead of a march towards the presidential Blue House.

In 1942 the Hollywood classic Casablanca, the Third Reich chief Strass told the French police sheriff, his impression of the main character of the bar host Rick Brian was that he was just another stolen American.

Luis Reynolds captain’s response was a warning, no one should underestimate the US mistakes.

“I’m with them,” he said to the arrogant German, “when they failed in Berlin in 1918”.

With the sun in Asia for another year, much of Asia will be eager to keep its geopolitical order in the region on the original fringes of the United States, whether it originated in Yolan, Texas or Arkansas mojo.

Rather, it could have historically been a watershed year, when an American president cleared his throat, Asia no longer stood up for attention.

A Chinese leader of the will of steel has surpassed a crumbling economy and embarrassment, in addition to declaring the expansion of the landscape of an illiterate in the South China Sea to impose his will across the Asian landscape.

The two events most symbolize the decline of US influence. The first was Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose security was guaranteed by the United States, under which he criticized President Barack Obama for criticizing his drug war.

The other was at the end of the year when China, under its owner’s control, unmanned unmanned aerial vehicles on the South China Sea. China seized the US Navy and returned equipment at the time of choice and issued severe warnings.

The incident is the Obama year from China to endure the second public aggression. . Earlier, after US and Chinese officials had condemned the airport in Hangzhou, he had to leave Air Force One’s “a **” instead of a conventional steel ladder when he left Asia.

Beijing apparently did not pardon Obama’s “hub” for Asia, as Asia was initially uneasy before the challenge of assessing the challenge was unconvincing.

American political scientist John Mearsheimer proposed the theory of offensive realism and argued that China’s growth forces would clash with the United States, notably that international politics had been a “ruthless and dangerous Business, and may keep it that way. ”

Obama is not a fan of that idea. The brain is looking for a scrap that is completely too delicate, and he unconsciously surrenders to his country’s swagger by appearing passive at a critical moment, if not a weakness.

Unfortunately, he did not want to lead, he should be a wave of global influence. The toxic economy he inherited from his predecessor has returned to health through seven years of uninterrupted expansion. In his view, the United States there is no major terrorist attacks, a small number of outgoing president to retain such a high rate of approval. His country at any time did not have such a strong military power. As US Secretary of Defense Carter has firmly told each of the Shangri-La dialogues held here over the past three years, the United States has stunning new weapons.

In hindsight, perhaps the early signs of Obama’s flag would come in the summer of 2013, when Syria crossed Washington’s famous “red line,” where he held a military strike at the last minute. The Russians have reached an agreement to let Syria give up chemical weapons.

This decision may not be an incorrect decision, but reverberates around the world, especially in Asia. One of the world’s first ambiguities against American power saw a president who was using the contradictions of it.

Similarly, at the same time the Sunnylands summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Obama that China will not militarize them to seize the South China Sea Islands. This commitment will be broken in a few years, but there is no punitive action. Then, after the Hague court made a clear decision on China’s claim for its South China Sea, he scarcely required Beijing to comply with the ruling.

Naturally, important lessons were presented. As Mr. Philippe’s journalist, Mr. Jaime Florcruz, a Philippine journalist who has been stationed in the Philippines for several years, said that Mr. Dutt’s positions stem from suspicions of actual support from the United States in the South China Sea conflict.

As the Philippines fully demonstrates, the dissatisfaction with the United States’ insistence on its own will, coupled with China’s diplomacy and firm determination, insisted on its own route to divide ASEAN into Beijing’s advantages.

On the economic front, Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, is firmly opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China’s RCEP is now the only large game in the city. Many US allies, including Australia, Japan and South Korea, have expressed interest in joining RCEP. Therefore, there are India.

China has won in other ways. Malaysia this year ann

velloor@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Dec 31, 2016.
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JAKARTA –

The police promptly investigated the death of six people in Pulo Mas, East Jakarta, on Tuesday, received public praise, but there are still ongoing problems that put investigators under pressure to expose the real motives behind the crime.

On Wednesday night, police arrested another suspect, Alloys Bernius Sinaga.

Hours ago, a raid in West Java, Bekasi, resulted in police shooting dead Ramlan Butar Butar, who had a criminal record, allegedly a gang leader.

Another suspect, Erwin Situmorang, was detained at the Jakarta Police Detention Center. The police are now pursuing the last suspect identified as Yus Pane.

Despite the fact that the police had promptly arrested the alleged perpetrators, a number of major questions remained unanswered, in particular as to whether robbery was the only motive.

Police said the crime occurred in a luxury residential high-end residential, is a robbery, but they can not explain what valuables were taken away, in addition to two Rolex watches with a bag and more than 60 million rupees worth of foreign currency (S $ 6,450).

It has been suggested that the value of stolen items and money for the “professional” robbery by a high-profile recidivist such as Ramlan’s “too small”.

Mr. Dodi Triono, a 59-year-old architect who owns the house and dies in the event, is portrayed as a billionaire, giving his luxury home and sports car.

Bambang Widodo Umar, a criminal law expert at the University of Indonesia, says it is important to arrest suspects quickly, but investigators should also be able to answer public questions.

“If many of the questions remain unanswered, it means that the police have not yet found the real motive, or that they have not gathered enough evidence,” Mr. Bambang told the Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said investigators should be able to explore more possibilities, such as whether the victims were killed or even retaliated for commercial competition or family problems. Mr. Bambang, a retired senior police officer, said people could have been hired to commit crimes.

Dodi’s daughter, 16-year-old Diona Arika Andra Putri and 9-year-old Dianita Gemma Dzalfayla, as well as girl friend Amel and family drivers Yanto and Tasrok also died in the incident.

Police said the medical tests confirmed that six people died of asphyxiation and were locked in a 2.25 square meter bathroom for more than 17 hours.

Another daughter of Mr. Dodi’s second marriage, Zanette Kalila Azaria, 13 years old and four domestic helpers, also locked in the bathroom and survived.

Mr. Doddy lives in the house where his two daughters divorced from his second wife. The police said they would ask his third wife Agnesya Kalangi, 19, who lives in a separate house to learn more about Mr. Doddy’s life before his death.

gnirmala@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Dec 31, 2016.
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