Looking to start a coal mine, but afraid that unfair anti-business labor laws might force you to pay overtime wages when you make miners work 40 hour shifts?  Well, it looks like Japan will soon be a great place for you:

More than 30,000 people kill themselves each year in Japan, bestowing the country with the shameful honor of the highest suicide rate in the developed world. To deal with this reality, a group of lawmakers from across the political spectrum pushed an antisuicide bill through the Diet last month to force corporations, governments and hospitals to take measures to curb these tragedies.

But the government, which is obligated to try to save its citizens’ lives, is at the same time pushing to kill off overtime pay and the limit of a 40-hour week for many of the nation’s office workers.

It would be an understatement to say that the initiatives appear to be in direct conflict with one another.

So, who is pushing this change?

The nation’s top business lobby, Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), however, puts it more bluntly, saying office workers with an average annual salary of 4 million yen or more should be targeted.

Keidanren insists that changes to labor practices that would eliminate overtime, modeled after the “white-collar exemption rule” in the U.S., are needed in order for Japan to “maintain international competitiveness.”

Keidanren says workers in Japan should be rewarded for ideas, not hours. Hiroyuki Matsui, director of the organization’s Labor Policy Bureau II, says that in white-collar jobs, “working hours and wages should be separated.”

“We can’t compete with China and South Korea by just working long hours,” he said. “For the Japanese economy, which has caught up with that of Europe, to keep its competitive edge (over the rest of Asia), we can’t maintain the current labor management system.”

Matsui disputed the link between elimination of working-hour caps and suicides, or deterioration in workers’ mental health. “If you have an annoying boss, you can get whacked out even if you work less than 40 hours a week,” he said.

Matsui acknowledged, however, that Japanese workers in general will have to face more pressure in the future. “Compared to 20 or 30 years ago, speedy work is a mandate for workers in general, regardless of changes to labor laws,” he said. “For Japan to stay competitive, each worker is bound to face more pressure on their work, either in its quality or speed.”

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Is there any end to the stupidity?   Elmininating overtime pay is supposed to increase  worker efficiency?   The article goes on to state that  even after the introduction of  overtime pay  labor laws,  overtime work  among  full-time officer workers remained incredibly high.   Illegal unpaid  “volunteer”  overtime work is still rampant.   A change in labor laws will only screw over all the workers whose companies are legally abiding by  current overtime pay laws; it won’t reduce the hours worked.   If anything, it will increase inefficiency.
Story found on [F-cked Gaijin]