The Japanese government has published for the first time a national list of more than 300 companies that had violated labor laws.

The government is optimistic that this name-and-shame tactic would help eliminate abuse and prevent “karoshi,” or death from overwork.

In the list published this week on the Department of Labor website, major companies such as advertising agency Dentsu Inc and electronics maker Panasonic Corp were named for illegal overtime.

A local unit of Japan Post, a subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings Co, is mentioned for failing to report a work-related injury.

Abuses such as illegal overwork have become so common in Japan over the past decade that these companies have been referred to as “black” companies in the media.

Public outrage over long working hours and the 2015 suicide of a young worker at Dentsu, later run by the government as karoshi, prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for labor reform a key political element.

The Department of Labor’s list includes 334 companies that received warnings for excessive overtime and other labor violations between last October and March.

The regional labor office had already made these cases individually public, although it sometimes withheld the names of the companies.

However, not all companies under investigation are made public or included in the list, a Labor Department official said.

The department only releases company names when it decides doing so would help encourage compliance and be in the public interest, she added.

The national list will be updated monthly.

The Abe government in March approved an action plan for sweeping reforms to employment practices, including caps on overtime and better pay for part-time and contract workers.

The proposals, which could come into effect from 2019, will only add to the strains already felt by businesses struggling with growing labor shortages due to rapidly aging populations.

That said, greater pressure to boost productivity is seen as long overdue and could boost long-term growth.

Lawyers and campaigners have said, however, that the measures proposed by the government so far do not go far enough.

A Dentsu spokesperson declined to comment, and Japan Post could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Panasonic spokeswoman said the company takes the labor violation case seriously and will work to avoid such cases in the future.

(Reuters/NAN)