blue-chip 復習
過労死問題は解決するのでしょうか。
Turning off the lights is no fix for overworked Japan
Behind the Dentsu raids is the death last December of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old graduate recruit who took her own life after toiling for less than a year at Dentsu and logging, towards the end, more than 105 hours of overtime a month.
With government research finding that one-fifth of Japanese companies admit their staff work dangerously long hours, the tragedy has resonated with unusual vehemence. Japanese media have also republished a note on employee duties, handwritten by the then president of Dentsu in 1951: “Once you take on a task, never let it go, even if you are killed.” It has prompted commentators to wonder if the instructions were ever rescinded.
Dentsu has now begun the automatic switching off of office lights to encourage staff to go home, at 10pm every day — a time when many employees still have hours left to work and feel under pressure to do so. However, the lights-off trick has been tried in other Japanese companies and government ministries — and, unless there are penalties for those who remain in the office (as some try with desk lamps), the ploy does not work.
None of these working practices is unique to Dentsu — and plenty of blue-chip Japanese companies may now be fretting that they could be next under scrutiny. But even if companies do enforce the lights-off rule, it is a superficial fix for a deeply ingrained problem. Companies know this, and many may be hoping that — as in the past — the issue will disappear in a fog of cultural explanations.
（一部抜粋）
https://www.ft.com/content/6d6b73b4-94fa-11e6-a1dc-bdf38d484582
今回取り上げる単語は、blue-chipです。
Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、 “denoting companies or their shares considered to be a reliable investment, though less secure than gilt-edged stock”とのことでした。20世紀の初頭から使用され始めた単語のようで、ギャンブルのゲームにおいて価値の高い “blue chip”が由来とされております。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「優良株の，一流の」と載っておりました。
青の反対は赤なので“red-chip”もあるかなと思い調べたところ、ホンコン株式会社に上場している中国系のホンコン企業のことを「レッドチップ」（Red Chips）と呼ぶそうです。地元資本の優良企業「ブルーチップ」に対し、共産党政権をイメージする赤をとって名付けられたとのことです。（『ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 電子辞書版』ブリタニカ・ジャパン）（Gomez）
blue chip - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
