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Japan is stepping up its drive to pressure companies into abandoning a culture of long working hours.
Prosecutors this week began reviewing whether Mitsubishi Electric Corp. forces its employees to work excessive hours--a move that follows an investigation of Dentsu Inc., Japan's biggest advertisement agency, where a worker who put in more than 100 hours of overtime in a month committed suicide.
Mitsubishi Electric said in a statement that it will "deal sincerely with the matter" and will monitor work hours closely and educate managers and employees on the issue. The labor ministry will continue to take a firm stance against long work hours, according to a spokesman who asked not to be named due to ministry policy.
The government is also seeking a shift...