Gwarosa

Gwarosa (과로사) entered Korean as a compound of three Sino-Korean morphemes, gwa (과, excess), ro (로, labor), and sa (사, death). The word parallels the Japanese karoshi (過労死), which uses the same Chinese characters and was recognized in Japan as a medical and legal category in the 1980s. Korea's adoption of its own term reflected a parallel pattern of extreme working hours, particularly in the rapid industrialization that followed the Korean War, when long hours were both expected and celebrated as evidence of national determination.

South Korea's average annual working hours have been among the highest in the OECD for decades. In the early 2000s, Korean workers averaged more than 2,500 hours per year, compared to roughly 1,400 in Germany and 1,700 in the United States. Government reforms have gradually reduced these figures, including a 2018 law that capped the standard work week at fifty-two hours, down from the previous sixty-eight. Despite these reforms, enforcement has remained uneven, and industries including construction, healthcare, and technology have continued to report patterns of excessive overtime.

Gwarosa cases have been documented across multiple sectors, with cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, as the most common cause of death. Korean labor law recognizes overwork-related death as eligible for industrial accident compensation, though families seeking recognition have frequently faced lengthy and contested claims processes. The term remains in active use in Korean public discourse as a marker of the cost that rapid economic development has imposed on the bodies of the workers who produced it.