日本政府对员工加班时间提出了新的限制。
The restrictions would cap overtime to 100 hours per month and 720 hours per year. The plan is supported by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the reforms are expected to eventually be approved by parliament.
该规定将加班时间限定为每月100小时和每年720小时。该方案得到了首相安倍晋三的支持，改革预计最终将由议会批准。
The government has said the overtime limits aim to fight what the Japanese call "karoshi," or death from overwork.
日本政府表示，限制加班时间是为了打击日本人所说的过劳死。
Japan's business culture has a long history of demanding that employees work many hours of overtime. An online survey last year also found that most Japanese workers only take about half the number of vacation days they are given.
日本企业文化长期要求员工长时间加班。去年的一项调查还发现，大多数日本员工只休了自己一半左右的假期天数。
The dangers of long working hours were highlighted by the 2015 death of an employee at Japanese advertising company Dentsu. The 24-year-old female employee committed suicide after complaining to family about the long hours she had to work.
2015年日本电通广告公司一名员工的死亡凸显了长时间工作的危险性。这名24岁的女雇员向家人抱怨自己需要长时间工作后自杀身亡。
Public outrage over the woman's death led to the resignation of Dentsu's CEO last January. The company's new chief has pledged to obey all labor laws and carry out reforms to protect the health and safety of employees.
公众对该女子死亡的愤怒导致电通公司CEO于去年一月份辞职。该公司新任首席执行官承诺遵守各项劳动法律并进行改革以保护员工的健康和安全。
Michael Cucek is with Temple University's Japan Campus. He says efforts by the Japanese government to improve conditions for workers are seen as a good thing. However, he and some Japanese activist groups believe the proposed limits are too high to truly make life better for employees.
迈克尔·库赛克（Michael Cucek）就职于天普大学日本分校。他说，日本政府改善员工条件的努力是一件好事情。然而他和一些日本活动家组织认为，日本政府提出的加班时间限制太高，无法真正改善员工生活。
"The number is absurd - that in a single month, one can have 100 hours of overtime, is simply a ridiculous number."
他说，“这个数字是荒谬的，在一个月加班100个小时，这是个荒谬的数字。”
A government report said last year that about one in five Japanese companies have employees who work such long hours that they are at serious risk of death.
去年有一份政府报告声称，大约20%的日本公司有员工长时间加班，面临严重的死亡风险。
The report found that nearly 23 percent of companies had some employees working over 80 hours of overtime a month. Medical officials have noted a greater possibility of death from work among people working at least 80 overtime hours per month.
这份报告发现，近23%的公司有一些员工每月加班超过80个小时。医务人员指出，每月加班至少80个小时的人员死亡的可能性更大。
The survey also showed that about 21 percent of Japanese employees work an average of 49 or more hours each week. That number compares to 16 percent of American, 13 percent of British and 10 percent of French employees.
调查还显示，大约21%的日本员工每周平均工作时间不低于49小时。相比之下，该比例在美国为16%，英国为13%，法国为10%。
Cucek says the woman who killed herself while working at Dentsu is an example of how work isolates many Japanese workers.
库赛克表示，这名在电通公司上班的自杀女性是一个例子，说明了工作如何孤立了许多日本员工。
"She was living not at home, but in a corporate dormitory. So there was never anybody to talk to. Never any way of her breaking out of the environment where ‘you must work, you must work, you must work,' was being pressed upon her."
“她不住在家里，而是住在公司的宿舍。所有她没有人可以交谈，也没有办法摆脱这种压在她身上的‘你必须工作，你必须工作，你必须工作’的环境。”
He said he hopes new overtime rules will send a clear message to Japanese companies that they can no longer demand an environment leading to employee health problems and death.
他说，他希望新的加班规定能够向日本公司发出明确信号，他们不能再要求一种导致员工健康问题和死亡的环境。
I'm Alice Bryant.
我是艾丽丝·布莱恩特。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)