For the want of a bento box, a Japanese worker who habitually left his desk three minutes before his official lunch break has been docked half a day’s pay.

The transgression prompted four senior officials at the city waterworks department in Kobe to hold a news conference offering a public apology for the worker’s conduct.

The unidentified 64-year-old employee was fined thousands of yen and reprimanded after an investigation found that he had left the office to order a bento box ahead of his lunch break on 26 occasions over a seven-month period, an official said.

The case caught the eye of social media users in a country known for its struggle with maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Japan’s work culture can be brutally punishing, spawning cases like that of Miwa Sado, a young journalist at a public broadcaster who died of congestive heart failure after clocking 159 hours of overtime in one month. She was 31.

Workers consider napping in public — or in the office — a badge of honor. It telegraphs a sign of diligence and commitment: You are working yourself to the bone.

The case of the waterworks employee calls into question the country’s efforts to address a rise in death from overwork. In a 2016 government report, nearly a quarter of companies surveyed said some employees were working more than 80 hours of overtime a month.

In May, the Lower House of Parliament passed a bill to improve working conditions, setting equal pay for equal work by prohibiting unfair treatment of non-regular workers. If approved, the bill would place a cap on overtime work, with penalties for violations: Annual overtime would be limited to 720 hours, with a monthly curb at fewer than 100 hours.

But critics argue that some of the provisions would worsen the problem of excessive working hours: The bill would exempt highly skilled and highly paid workers since their salaries would be based on results, not hours worked.

Gen Oka, who is in charge of personnel affairs of the waterworks bureau of Kobe City, said that the employee told his supervisors he went to a nearby restaurant to order a bento lunch because he needed a «change of pace.»

The worker was caught when a senior colleague looked out his office window and spotted him walking to get food. Senior management calculated how much time he had spent away from his desk and docked him «thousands of yen as punishment,» Mr. Oka said, adding, «He said, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I will never do that again.’»

The official acknowledged that since making the announcement on June 15, the department had received some blowback. But the department also got some support, he said, from people who said «we shouldn’t hire such a person who leaves the desk during working hours.»

He defended the department’s decision, saying, «It is our obligation as public servants to devote ourselves to the work.»

Worker takes 3 minutes. Now his pay is docked.

© 2018 The New York Times