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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Toyota has reached a settlement with the family of an engineer whose suicide was ruled a job-related death due to harassment from his boss.

Toyota Motor Corp. vowed to crack down on harassment in the workplace to ensure employees’ safety and expressed deep remorse, “facing up with true sincerity to the fact that a precious worker’s life was lost.”

The engineer, then 28, was repeatedly ridiculed by his boss, prevented from taking days off and told to die. His suicide in 2017 was ruled by a regional labor bureau as a job-related death in 2019, entitling his family to compensation. His name has been withheld due to privacy concerns, standard in Japan.

To prevent future harassment, Toyota will improve workers’ health care, better evaluate management, educate workers and encourage a workplace culture where employees can speak up, the company said in a statement Monday.

“Toyota promises to work on developing people who, each and every one, can take an interest in those around them, under our stance that power harassment should never be tolerated,” it said.

The attorney for the victim and his family, Yoshihide Tachino, said Toyota was responsible for mismanagement in allowing the harassment to continue. The amount of compensation the family will receive was not disclosed.

He stressed the settlement includes the preventive measures promised by Toyota as well as a thorough investigation into the death. Company President Akio Toyoda met with the family of the deceased and promised to bring about change, but the company needs to be monitored to make workplace culture changes, Tachino said.

“We believe that the legacy of efforts to curtail power harassment pays respect to his tragic death, which came too soon at 28, although nothing will ever be enough,” he said.

The case has drawn attention as highlighting a common problem in workaholic Japan, where such abuse often goes unchecked or undetected.

Complaints in Japan about various workplace abuse, including sexual harassment and problems over parental leave, have climbed to about 88,000 cases a year, more than tripling in the last 15 years.

They have been widespread, involving the police force, schools and judo athletes, as well as various companies.

In the Toyota case, the young engineer’s boss bullied him constantly, including referring to his educational background. Although he had a graduate degree from the prestigious University of Tokyo, his undergraduate degree was from a less elite school, according to an investigation into the case. Such background details can be painfully crucial in conformist Japan.

The engineer, who joined Toyota in 2015, told those around him that he would rather die than endure the suffering. He took some time off in 2016, citing mental stress. When he returned to work, Toyota assigned him to another section, but he was still working on the same floor as his former boss, records show.

The family said in a statement that their son won’t return despite the compensation.

“My heart still aches over what has happened to my beloved son. And when I think of him, all I want is to have him back,” the statement said.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — With Kamala Harris visiting Guatemala and Mexico on her first foreign trip as vice president, the Biden administration is expected to announce new measures to fight smuggling and trafficking, and hopes to announce additional anti-corruption efforts as well on Monday, a senior administration official said.

The official, who briefed reporters traveling with Harris on Sunday, spoke on condition of anonymity to preview announcements before they have been made public. No further details were provided.

Harris has been tasked by President Joe Biden with addressing the root causes of the spike in migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, and her aides say corruption will be a central focus of her meetings with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday.

“Corruption really does sap the the wealth of any country, and in Central America is at a scale where it is a large percentage of GDP across the region,” said special envoy Ricardo Zuniga.

“We see corruption as one of the most important root causes to be dealt with,” Zuniga added.

The trip got off to a rocky start when Harris’ plane returned to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about 30 minutes after takeoff because of what her spokesperson said was a problem with the landing gear. She departed on another plane and landed late Sunday in in Guatemala City, where she was met by Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo.

Harris is seeking to secure commitments from Guatemala and Mexico for greater cooperation on border security and economic investment, and aides say she will also discuss vaccine sharing during her meetings. But corruption in the region — a far more intractable challenge — will complicate her efforts.

It’s already had a significant impact on her work in Central America. Harris has yet to engage substantively with the leaders of Honduras and El Salvador, who are both embroiled in corruption scandals.

Giammattei has faced criticism over corruption within his own government. Zuniga acknowledged that the U.S. government faces a challenge in working with him but argued Harris was in the country in part to have a direct conversation with the president about this and other issues.

“The best way to deal with these cases where you have a very complex relationship in a country like Guatemala is to talk clearly and plainly as partners, as countries that have to get along” he said.

Harris has laid out an approach centered on creating better opportunities and living conditions in the region through humanitarian and economic aid. She announced plans to send $310 million to provide support for refugees and address food shortages, and recently secured commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in the Northern Triangle countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.

Washington won some goodwill through its vaccine diplomacy this past week. Giammattei and López Obrador both received calls from Harris on Thursday telling them the U.S. would be sending 500,000 doses and 1 million doses, respectively, of COVID-19 vaccine.

While in Guatemala, Harris also plans to meet community leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. In Mexico, she will speak with female entrepreneurs and hold a roundtable with labor workers.

She’s underscored the need to address corruption in public remarks and events. In a May meeting with a number of leading voices on Guatemala’s justice system, she noted her work as a prosecutor and said that “injustice is a root cause of migration.”

“Part of giving people hope is having a very specific commitment to rooting out corruption in the region,” she said.

Harris has also raised the issue during virtual meetings with the leaders of both countries, and aides say she will do it again during meetings on her trip. During their past conversations, they have discussed areas of mutual interest — improving port security, combatting smuggling networks, going after corrupt actors — and the goal of this trip is to turn that talk into action, aides say.

While the vice president will make announcements concerning new efforts at cooperation and new programs, she’s not expected to announce any new aid during her trip.

While in Latin America, Harris will also have to navigate the politics of immigration. Congressional Republicans have criticized both Biden and Harris for deciding not to visit the border, and contend the administration is ignoring what they say is a crisis there. April was the second-busiest month on record for unaccompanied children encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border, following March’s all-time high. The Border Patrol’s total encounters in April were up 3% from March, marking the highest level since April 2000.

Conservatives will be watching Harris closely for any missteps, hoping to drag her into further controversy on an issue that they see as a political winner.

In her efforts to win commitments on corruption from the region’s leaders, Harris can point to a number of moves by the Biden administration last week.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the problem during his own recent trip to Central America. The White House issued a memo elevating foreign corruption to a major national security issue, and directed all federal agencies to prioritize it and modernize their foreign corruption-fighting tools.

Eric Olson, director of policy at the Seattle International Foundation, which works to promote good governance in Central America, said that addressing corruption will take particular diplomatic skill. Harris will need to hold the leaders of Guatemala and Mexico accountable while also deepening trust and cooperation with the two nations.

“The challenge that she faces is how to, on the one hand, have a conversation, keep the door open — while not seeming to ignore the obvious elephant in the room, which is this incredible penetration of the state by corrupt actors,” he said.

In Mexico, López Obrador continues to face a complicated security situation in many parts of the country. Nearly three-dozen candidates or pre-candidates were killed before this weekend’s midterm elections as drug cartels sought to protect their interests. The government’s inability to provide security in parts of the country is of interest to the U.S. in an immigration context, both for the people who are displaced by violence and the impact it has on a severely weakened economy trying reemerge from the pandemic.

The number of Mexicans encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection rose steadily from December through April. Mexico remains a key U.S. ally in trying to slow immigration, not only of its own citizens, but those crossing its territory. Successive U.S. administrations have effectively tried to push their immigration enforcement goals south to Mexico and Guatemala.

Nongovernmental organizations placed Guatemala’s widespread corruption at the top of their list of concerns before Harris’ visit.

Last month, two lawyers who are outspoken critics of Giammattei’s administration were arrested on what they say were trumped-up charges aimed at silencing them.

The selection of judges for Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, its highest, was mired in influence peddling and alleged corruption. Giammattei picked his chief of staff to fill one of the five vacancies. When Gloria Porras, a respected force against corruption, was elected to a second term, the congress controlled by Giammattei’s party refused to seat her.

Harris’ visit comes with high expectations, but experts say clear progress on corruption may be elusive.

“These are societies built on corruption,” said Olson. “You’re not gonna have an impact in six months.”

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Sherman reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexicans cast ballots Sunday to elect the entire lower house of Congress, almost half the country’s governors and most mayors in a vote that will determine whether President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party gets the legislative majority it needs to continue his “Fourth Transformation” of Mexico.

López Obrador’s critics depicted the elections as a chance to stop the still-popular president from concentrating more power and weakening checks and balances. The president said the opposition is dominated by conservatives who oppose his campaign against corruption and wasteful spending.

López Obrador has complained about courts and independent regulatory agencies that have blocked some of his tougher proposals to empower state-owned industries. Opponents feared that if he won a majority, he might try to subjugate courts and regulatory agencies created during Mexico’s decades-long transition to full democracy.

After polls closed, Lorenzo Córdova, president of the National Electoral Institute, declared the election a success. He said only 30 of more than 130,000 polling places across the country were not able to open due to a variety of circumstances.

Half of those unopened polling places were in the southern state of Oaxaca where voting materials were stolen or damaged, institute Executive Secretary Edmundo Jacobo said Sunday night.

Representatives of the major parties speaking at the electoral institute’s general council meeting applauded the conduct of Sunday’s vote amid the pandemic, despite noting that the run-up to voting was one of the most violent in recent times.

Mexico City housewife Dolores Martinez said she was pleased with López Obrador’s anti-corruption fight, after decades of corrupt administrations.

“I like it a lot,” Martinez said as she waited to vote. “There has to be transparency.”

But other voters said they were disappointed by López Obrador. “The pandemic was poorly managed,” said Teresita Loza, who waited in line to vote with her daughter, Sara Loza. Loza said the president’s programs had handed out money, but hadn’t created results.

As for much of the campaign, violence marked the days leading up to the vote. On Saturday, an employee of the state prosecutors’ office in Chiapas who was not authorized to be quoted said five people who were carrying voting material to polling places were ambushed and killed on a rural highway. Those killed appeared to be volunteers, not government employees.

Three dozen candidates, mostly for local posts, have been killed to date, and on Friday, a government electoral agency worker was shot to death in Tlaxcala state, near Mexico City.

Fifteen of the country’s 32 state governorships were at stake, and all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress. Almost 20,000 local posts including mayors and town council seats were being decided in 30 states, and those have often been the most violence-scarred races.

Experts said criminal gangs sought to influence the elections, while the government ascribed most of the killings to other questions and said they weren’t necessarily related to elections.

The country’s electoral authority said the elections would be among the most thoroughly monitored in history, with over 19,000 registered observers, and violence at polling places themselves is relatively rare.

López Obrador has raised minimum wages and strengthened government aid programs like supplementary payments to the elderly, students and training programs for youths. He has also created a quasi-military National Guard and given the army a huge role in building his pet projects, which include trains, an oil refinery and airports.

But he has not hewed to a traditional leftist line. He has maintained friendly if sometimes tension-fraught relations with the United States and willingly helped keep tens of thousands of Central American migrants from reaching the U.S. border. He abhors government debt or waste.

Opponents depict him as intolerant of criticism and obsessed with a nostalgic 1960s vision of Mexico, when oil was king and state-owned companies dominated many sectors of the economy. Socially conservative and a professed Christian “in the broadest sense,” he has angered feminists with his policies, but has pleased many Mexicans by living austerely.

The elections represent the first mass public events since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country over a year ago, though case numbers have fallen and Mexico has vaccinated about a quarter of adults. The estimated 350,000 fatalities in the pandemic — about 230,000 of them test-confirmed — do not appear to have played a major role in the campaigns, but may weigh on voters’ minds.

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Associated Press writer Manuel de la Cruz contributed to this report.

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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Monday, as initial euphoria about the gains that closed out last week on Wall Street faded quickly.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% in morning trading to 29,022.12. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost earlier gains, inching down 0.1% to 7,290.60. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1% to 3,244.12. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.9% to 28,648.63, while the Shanghai Composite inched up less than 0.1% to 3,592.70.

Worries about the coronavirus pandemic remain strong in the region, in contrast to the U.S. and parts of Europe, where life is increasingly returning to something resembling normalcy, but the vaccine rollout is gradually picking up steam in Asia.

Much of the regional economy depends of exports to the West. Data being released this week, such as trade data for China and industrial production for India, are expected to reflect the rebound from the pandemic.

“Consensus expectations around activity data being released this week in Asia looks strong,” Venkateswaran Lavanya of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank in Singapore said in a commentary.

“The more pertinent question is now whether we can effectively gauge the extent of the recovery, or a lack thereof, in these economies.”

Wall Street closed out last week with a second straight weekly gain for the S&P 500, which rose 0.9% to 4,229.89. It followed a U.S. Labor Department report showing American employers added 559,000 jobs in May.

Technology stocks were biggest gainers and did the most to drive the broader market higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5% to 34,756.39. The rally in technology stocks helped push the Nasdaq to a solid gain. The tech-heavy index climbed 1.5% to 13,814.49.

Smaller company stocks also notched gains. The Russell 2000 added 0.3% to 2,286.41.

The pickup in jobs last month is another sign that the economy continues to recover, even as employment remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Investors have been worried about rising inflation becoming a long-term issue, rather than the temporary effect from the recovering economy. They are also worried that The Fed could consider pulling its support for the economy if inflation runs too hot.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 18 cents to $69.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 81 cents to $69.62 per barrel on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 29 cents to $71.60 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 109.58 Japanese yen from 109.49 yen. The euro cost $1.2167, up from $1.2165.

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PARIS (AP) — Former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens wants more discussions about mental health to help people both inside and outside of tennis talk freely about what is troubling them.

“Absolutely. I feel like it’s not spoken about enough,” she said Saturday after winning her third-round match at the French Open. “I think it’s definitely (a) top priority for everyone, not just tennis players but also you guys who are dealing with life in general.”

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka put a renewed focus on mental health when she pulled out of the French Open on Monday and cited difficulties in dealing with “huge waves of anxiety.”

Players may keep far too silent, the 28-year-old Stephens said, when what they really need is to feel they can open up to others.

“I feel like a lot of players on our tour suffer in silence. I think that is not cool and not fair and we should definitely approach it differently,” she said. “The more support, the better. I think not only for us girls supporting each other but for the tour to be able to support us in different ways is super helpful.”

Stephens, an American who won the U.S. Open in 2017 and was runner-up at the French Open in 2018, says rivals may really need each other to cope off court.

“As competitors and colleagues, I think it’s important to support each other just because, honestly, on the road every single week we’re really all we have,” she said. “We’re the same faces that we see all the time. I think it’s super important to be able to support each other through, you know, the ups and downs, because obviously tennis is super emotional.”

Second-ranked Osaka’s decision to withdraw from Roland Garros drew support for her courage in some quarters but also some hostility on social networks.

The multiplication of often explicit and offensive criticism on social networks has also made it too easy for people’s mental health to be impacted.

“Obviously we live in a world where there is the internet … all these things that creep into your mind,” Stephens said.

The psychological effects of the coronavirus pandemic, during which many people were alone and in isolation for long months, have increased the need for more communication.

“It’s really important to be able to talk to people, talk to someone, just about what you’re feeling, what you’re going through,” Stephens said. “It’s not easy to just pretend that everything is great when it’s not.”

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More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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