The family of a JR West employee who committed suicide earlier this month, is filing a lawsuit against the railway company.

According to the case files, the 28-year-old employee was in charge of managing signaling equipment and had been working for over half a year, clocking up 100 hours of forced overtime a month, Fuji TV reported. His family was quoted as saying that during some months, he worked over 254 hours of overtime.

A JR West spokesman told media: "We were unaware that an employee had been working such long hours. This is a case of poor management."

However, the spokesman said JR West is disputing the case on the grounds that they believe there is no relation between the long hours and the employee's suicide, Fuji reported.

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