Abstract
The state of workers’ compensation for work-related accident involving mental illness is reported every year; however, the number of work-related accident claims involving illness reaches a new record high each year with 2,346 cases in 2021 (an increase of 295 cases from the previous year), and in fact, the number of cases of recognized work-related accident was 509 in 2019, 608 in 2020, and 629 in 2021, indicating a recognition rate of 24.7%–26.8%, and the serious situation is continuing. Based on the considerations that result in the recognition of work-related psychogenic mental illness, the then Ministry of Labour (currently the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare) published guidelines for determining whether mental illness owing to psychological stress is caused on- or off-duty (guidelines for determining recognition of work-related accident) in September 1999, and standards for recognizing mental illness caused by psychological stress
in December 2011. Examples of litigation cases associated with each of the guidelines and standards for recognizing work-related accidents are presented. Furthermore, as of December 2019, review meetings have been held with regard to the standards for recognizing work-related accidents, and the as act of “power harassment” was newly established (classified) in the workplace psychological stress evaluation list (notification no. 0529, article 1-2) as an independent event from “interpersonal relationships” in May 2020. The same review committee has been in session since December 2021, where they have been revising the standards for recognizing work-related accident, including the approach to medical treatment for mental illness following recognition of a work-related accident, and we herein provide an overview of the standards.
