Dentsu CEO quits over suicide of employee

TOKYO • Dentsu president and chief executive officer Tadashi Ishii, 65, will leave the top job at Japan's biggest advertising agency to take responsibility for the 2015 Christmas Day suicide of a 24-year-old employee, Ms Matsuri Takahashi, who worked 105 hours of overtime over a month.

The move came after the Tokyo Labour Bureau said on Wednesday it would refer the company and officials who manage working hours to prosecutors.

Since last month, workers at Dentsu have been barred from logging more than 65 hours of overtime a month, down from the previous limit of 70.

Work issues were a contributing factor in 2,159 suicides in Japan last year, according to a health and labour ministry White Paper published in October.

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London's housing market slows down

LONDON • London's housing market underperformed, when compared with the rest of the Britain, for the first time in eight years, as buyers found themselves increasingly stretched by the issue of affordability, according to Nationwide Building Society.

Home prices in the capital rose 3.7 per cent this year from a year earlier. The pace is down from 12.2 per cent last year. Across the United Kingdom, home values increased 4.5 per cent, the mortgage lender said yesterday.

Britain's vote in June to leave the European Union and an increase in stamp duty also weighed on London's market.

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