Dentsu Names New CEO Following Employee Suicide

In Tokyo, marcoms network Dentsu has promoted Toshihiro Yamamoto to the role of President and CEO, following the departure of Tadashi Ishii, who resigned in December following a scandal over an employee's 'death by overwork'.

The suicide of 24-year-old Dentsu employee Matsuri Takahashi, on 25th December 2015, was said to be an example of 'karoshi', a Japanese word which means 'death by overwork'. Lawyers for the Takahashi family said that in the month starting 9th October 2015, she had worked 105 hours of overtime. An investigation conducted as part of Japan's Labour Standards Law found that more than 30 Dentsu employees had been forced to work excessive and unlawful amounts of overtime, which they had underreported by more than 100 hours per month.

Then last October, Dentsu was accused of 'billing discrepancies', which included charging clients fees for placing ads, when no ad placement had been made. As a result, Dentsu agreed to return an estimated 230 million yen ($2.3m) to clients. Ishii resigned in December to take responsibility for the work-related suicide and for failing to achieve what he described as a 'dramatic reform of overwork'. He has now been replaced by SVP Yamamoto (pictured), who will take up his new role on 23rd January.

Commenting on his own appointment, Yamamoto said: 'My mission is to re-establish trust in Dentsu in Japan, and build a sustainable growth path for the long term. I believe it will become a reality with the improvements we are making to create a more flexible working environment where our diverse talents will thrive to help create value for our clients and professional fulfilment for our people'.

Web site: www.dentsu.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.