Ohio family says Honda's pressure to work long hours led to man's suicide

The family of an engineer is suing Honda Development & Manufacturing of America saying "inhumane" working conditions led to the man's 2021 suicide inside a facility in Raymond, Ohio.

The lawsuit states Michael Narazaki, 53, who had worked for Honda for over 30 years, hanged himself in his office after months of grueling hours that his managers refused to address. He was working between 100 and 120 hours a week, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the Union County Court of Common Pleas.

At the time of his death, he left several notes written on Honda letterhead. One said: "I'm so sorry I couldn't get anything right on this project. Maybe this is the one thing I am getting right," according to the suit.

He wrote that he hoped his death would help ease pressures on his Japanese and American colleagues. "They are drowning!" he wrote.

Honda spokesperson Chris Abbruzzese issued a statement Thursday.

“The loss of any associate is difficult, and we want to express our continued deepest sympathies to the Narazaki family for the loss of our associate Michael Narazaki," Abbruzzese wrote. "As this involves a legal matter, we are not able to comment further.”

According to Honda, the company employs over 9,000 Ohio residents making it one of the state's largest employers. Honda says it has 30,000 direct employees in the U.S.

Cincinnati law firm Freking, Myers & Reul is representing the family.

“It truly shocks the conscience," lead attorney Austin LiPuma said. "My heart is broken for Michael’s wife, children, and for the community at large that knows how prolific Honda is as an employer. It’s truly shameful.”

The lawsuit states that, in the last few months of his life, Narazaki was frequently traveling between Detroit and Worthington, Ohio, where his family lived. He was working weekends and attending 3 a.m. calls with Japan as part of the company's push to advance their electric vehicles and catch up with the competition.

According to the lawyers representing the Narazaki family, Honda knowingly masked the "outrageous working hours" and that managers ignored serious complaints about "grueling" overtime from people working on the same project as Narazaki.

"The stress, pressure, and exhaustion of Honda’s grueling and inhumane work atmosphere manifested in Michael’s death by suicide," the lawsuit states.

Narazaki was the primary source of income for his family, the lawyers said. His wife, Miki Ushiba, was moved their three children across the country following his death so they could be closer to family in Seattle.

The lawsuit states that Japanese companies, including Honda, have created policies to address overworking, which is "commonplace" in Japan, but that Honda did not follow these policies for Narazaki.

"Honda’s Japanese-style work week hours has merely trickled down to its American-based subsidiaries, where overwork death protections have not been formalized by the government," the lawsuit states.

The family is seeking damages for wrongful death, emotional distress and unjust enrichment among other claims. The lawsuit states the project Narazaki was working on is projected to exceed $3 billion in profits.

A similar lawsuit was filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by the family of a former Kroger employee. Kroger sought to have the case dismissed citing what scholars dub Ohio’s “suicide rule” that limits liability following a victim’s death. The law in Ohio, as in most states, essentially faults a suicide victim for their own death – it may not matter what happened (or what was done) to them beforehand.

But Ohio has an exception, in which a defendant can be held liable for someone taking their own life if the possibility of “suicide was reasonably foreseeable.” The Hamilton County judge has allowed the case to proceed.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org .

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio family says Honda's pressure to work long hours led to man's suicide