Labor bureaus across the nation are receiving an increasing number of complaints about power harassment, the government said.

In fiscal 2008, the number reached 32,242, up 3,907 from fiscal 2007 and five times that of six years ago.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has added criteria covering power harassment to its standards for recognizing work-related accidents.

However, experts have said it is difficult to establish if power harassment has occurred because it happens in the course of work.

According to the ministry, one 37-year-old man took a leave of absence from his company in Tokyo in February after he felt his superior had harassed him.

He said he only realized something was wrong when he found himself on the verge of jumping in front of a train on his way home in March 2007. The man visited a hospital and was diagnosed as having depression. The doctor told him the cause of his illness might be exhaustion and the power harassment he allegedly received from his superior.

The superior, with whom he had worked for about a year, was said to be extremely strict with the man, ordering him to tidy his desk and scolding him about spelling mistakes in documents. He said he became so scared he could not concentrate on his work and that he feared what the superior would say to him next.

According to the man, the superior would say things such as "You can't do anything right!" and "So you're hungry even though you haven't done anything?"

The man also said he stopped receiving e-mails that were supposed to be sent to all members of staff in his section.

He started taking medicine to help him cope with going to work and asked his company to transfer him to another section. He was transferred to another section in April 2008, but took leave in February. He still visits the hospital for treatment and says he hopes to recover one day and resume work at the same company.

Those calling bureaus across the nation are said to have had a range of complaints, such as superiors who scolded them and even used physical abuse, those who have blamed them for everything that goes wrong in the office and some who use abusive and degrading language.

In April, the ministry reviewed the criteria on recognizing work-related accidents and illness to make it easier for people who become depressed due to power harassment to receive workers compensation.

The ministry added phrasing to the criteria applicable to those who suffered "Serious harassment, bullying or physical assault" including power harassment. Previously, the criteria only mentioned "trouble with a superior," and it was relatively rare for those complaining they had suffered power harassment to be recognized as suffering from a work-related accident or illness.

So far, the ministry has not received reports on the number of cases in which power harassment have led to recognized work-related accidents and illness, but it expects such applications in the future.

Yasuko Okada, representative of consultant firm Cuore C Cube, Ltd., said one of the factors behind the increase in consultations about power harassment is the increase in stress resulting from poor communication and job cuts.

According to Okada, the introduction of IT systems also has increased harassment levels as, for example, nonregular workers are berated by newly hired, young regular employees and young employees belittle superiors who are not good with technology.

"In some cases, superiors have to shout because they don't have any other choice. If we decide all examples of this are power harassment related, it'll be impossible to get anything done," Okada said. "It's more difficult to judge whether power harassment has taken place than it is for sexual harassment cases."