Tokyo ? Tokyo District Court on Monday ruled that the death of a 35-year-old company employee who killed himself as a result of his supervisor’s abusive language was work-related and demanded the government pay compensation to the man’s family.

The man’s wife sued the government to recognize her late husband’s death as work-related.

Presiding Judge Hiroshi Watanabe said, “The man carried an excessive mental burden caused by his supervisor’s language and behavior, which caused him mental anguish leading him to commit suicide.”

According to the ruling, the man worked as a salesman at a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company’s Shizuoka branch from 1997. The subsection chief joined the branch in April 2002 and habitually used abusive language toward the man. The language included comments such as: “Your existence is offensive to my eyes. Get out of my sight,” “You’re a wage-snatcher parasitizing the company,” and “You’re a social phobic, aren’t you?”