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In Korea, a worker’s sacrifice was especially emphasized by high level of economic growth policy. Recently, there is a tendency that workers’ death from overworking (Karoshi), including adult sudden death syndrome, has been increasing because of anxiety of employment under rapidly changing industrial workplace environment. Karoshi is not a word speaking a legal concept strictly, but a word speaking generally in society. It is the state that a worker died of physical overexertion or mental stress. A legal meaning of Karoshi depends on whether death resulted from occupational overworking is applied in the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (IACIA) or not.
Occupational accident is prescribed in the current IACIA, and Karoshi is one type of it. In order to meet requirement for Karoshi, the deceased should be one of the workers who are prescribed in IACIA, and the work also should be prescribed in the same law.
For judging of Karoshi, we must find out that the worker did overwork, and the connection between the casual disease and the overwork. It is important that the related disease was caused or worsen by overworking. Also it is important that we should demarcate the range of diseases.
In Korea and Japan, they think that the casual diseases of Karoshi are cerebral and cardiac ones. However, it was more specifically described in Japan.
Karoshi has been acknowledged as not only the cerebral and the cardiac diseases but also hepatic and pulmonary diseases by precedents. However, in cases of stomach or lung cancer, precedents don’t acknowledge them as Karoshi because it is unable to prove the connection between the diseases and overwork with the latest medical knowledge. Precedents also don’t acknowledge an adult sudden death syndrome as occupational diseases because of unclearness of cause.