Overview
- The manual was announced at a press conference on Friday, May 29, and was jointly produced by Kanadevia and Naomi Ueda after ten meetings that began in February 2025.
- The move follows a 2024 Osaka South Labour Standards Office decision that the 2021 suicide of 27-year-old engineer Yuki Ueda while posted in Rayong, Thailand, was work-related because of heavy psychological load, overtime and supervisory pressure.
- Kanadevia says the manual covers three stages—pre-departure, on-assignment and post-return—and spells out steps such as detailed duty and hours briefings, enhanced training, monthly check-ins on fatigue and return wishes, and a consultation hotline made known to families.
- The company’s president visited Naomi Ueda on May 24 to apologize, pledged to implement the manual, and the family hopes the measures will make Kanadevia a model for preventing overseas overwork deaths.
- A key unresolved issue is that Japan’s Labour Standards Act generally does not apply to employees on overseas assignment, so the manual is a company-led prevention model but legal and regulatory change would be needed to close enforcement gaps more broadly.