The president and CEO of a Japanese advertising firm has resigned after an overworked employee committed suicide, CNN reported.
Dentsu, an international advertising and public relations company that employs 47,000 and operates in 140 countries, confirmed Thursday that Tadashi Ishii would resign after the company's board meeting in January. His resignation comes after 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi committed suicide on Christmas Day in 2015.
Japanese regulators determined in October that Takahashi, who joined the company in April 2015, had clocked about 105 hours of overtime in the month leading up to her death, CNN reported. The regulators ruled that the workload resulted in her suicide. Takahashi jumped to her death from the upper floor of a company dormitory, a lawyer for her family told the Japan Times.
In a statement, Takahashi’s 53-year-old mother, Yukimi, called on the company to “make sure it implements efforts to end long working hours so there will not be a victim like Matsuri in the future,” the Japan Times reported.
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has referred the case to prosecutors, CNN reported.
"We deeply regret failing to prevent the overwork of our new recruit," the 65-year-old Ishii said at a news conference Wednesday night in Tokyo. "I offer a sincere apology to the bereaved family and everyone in society."
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