I would say that reasoning is a little suspect. This is often considered a uniquely Japanese phenomenon, but there's a growing body of work suspecting that isn'

I would say that reasoning is a little suspect. This is often considered a uniquely Japanese phenomenon, but there's a growing body of work suspecting that isn't the case. In Japan part of the classification involves unlogged or extreme amounts of overtime, something we also have in the US (I have personally worked for years at companies that required a lot of unlogged/unpaid overtime from all of their employees). The cause of death is often stress related heart attack or stroke, again something we also have in the US. We know excessive job stress can cause permanent degenerative damage to the heart. So the fact that the Japanese choose to classify it as work-related and Americans don't doesn't necessarily mean such deaths don't exist in the US, or are necessarily too small to be worth measuring. They just simply aren't measured.