Suicides in Worker Accident Insurance: Riskization and Medicalization of Suicide in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the question of when and how worker suicides came to be recognized as a “risk” in the context of Japan’s industrial accident compensation insurance system (“worker accident insurance”), how the “riskization” of suicide and the “medicalization” of suicide are related to each other, and what relationship exists between the view of suicide as a sign of mental disorder and the way suicide is construed by administration, bereaved families, employers, and courts and the apportioning of responsibility. To achieve this purpose, this chapter analyses documents from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and conducted a questionnaire survey with bereaved family members and a lawyer. The results of the research suggest that the development of a welfare state framework in which worker’s suicide is incorporated into social insurance leads, via the concept of “risk,” to a focus on mental health in the workplace, involving new forms of monitoring and social control measures.