A common greeting at Japanese manufacturing and construction sites is “Goanzenni” (Be safe).

The custom is said to have started with the former Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., but later spread throughout the steelmaking industry as well as other industrial sectors.

The Osaka-based major plant manufacturer Kanadevia Corp. has created a manual along with the bereaved family of an employee who died of “karoshi” (overwork death) while overseas to manage the health of employees working abroad.

The 27-year-old engineer died while on an extended business trip to Thailand.

As a result, his mother, Naomi Ueda, 55, asked Kanadevia to compile the manual and the company agreed.

In late May, a news conference was held in Osaka in which Ueda sat next to the Kanadevia official in charge of personnel affairs to explain the manual.

That was the first time I covered a news........

© The Asahi Shimbun