Languages in the Big Apple

A Tokyo judge recently ruled that the suicide of a 35-year old man was work-related, and that the government must pay reparations to the man’s family.

The man, who worked for a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company, left a suicide note detailing the verbal abuse he received from his boss, which purportedly caused him to spiral into a depression that ultimately ended his life. He wrote: “My defects echo around my head, and I now despise myself.”

According to his wife, the man’s boss abused him on a daily basis, throwing out insults including: “Your existence is offensive to my eyes. Get out of my sight,” “You’re a wage-snatcher parasitizing the company,” and “You’re a social phobic, aren’t you?”

The ruling is significant because it is the “first time a court has ruled harassment by senior staff, such as abusive language and bullying, as being the direct cause of suicide, and recognized such a death as being work-related.”

While the incident may seem odd to write about on a language website, the legal action taken in response to the bullying is a significant step for workplace security. And while this particular man in Japan chose to end only his own life, the outcomes of verbal abuse have been bloodier here in the U.S. – for every school massacre and work place shooting that’s happened in America, there is a story of bullying behind it. Seung-Hui Cho was repeatedly made fun of for his social ineptitude and taciturnity, the Columbine kids claimed they were acting out in response to a school-sanctioned favoritism of jocks and jock culture, and the list goes on. There’s a great book by Mark Ames entitled Going Postal that looks into the environments in which these violent outbreaks have occurred; in each case, there is endless evidence of verbal abuse.