Clerks really don’t get paid enough.

There have been a lot of reports on the growing problem of customer harassment in Japan, which can range from rude language to threats of physical violence. Perhaps because it appears in so many different forms, it’s a difficult problem to tackle and only seems to be getting worse.

To see just how varied acts of customer harassment can get, let’s take a look at a recent arrest in Kyoto. A 49-year-old unemployed man living in the Minami Ward of Kyoto City was picked up by police on suspicion of coercion, having forced the clerk at an electronics store to shave his own head.

The incident began on 4 April, when the suspect is said to have called an electronics store in the same ward to complain that electric hair clippers he bought there didn’t work. He demanded that a new one be brought to his home and the 42-year-old clerk agreed to do so.

When arriving at the home with the replacement clippers, the suspect is said to have shown his tattoos to the clerk, suggesting he’s not so much “unemployed” as he is “differently employed” in organized crime. The suspect then told the clerk, “If you’re really sorry, shave your head. You know, a repentance shave,” adding “If you were in my gang you’d do it right away.”

▼ Shaving one’s head is a well-known act of contrition in Japan but is generally considered old-fashioned and extreme.

The clerk then shaved just the right side of his head using the new clippers he had brought and was made to clean up his own hair trimmings before leaving. A report was filed with the police who made the arrest. The suspect is said to have admitted to the charges, but I’m not sure this counts as an admission: “If that’s what the other guy said, then oh well.”

And in a chilling twist to this story, police found that the original clippers the suspect complained about were perfectly operational all along.

“There’s just non-stop harassment and fraud going on.”
“What was the point in that? He didn’t get any money out of it.”
“That’s why I like being bald.”
“His boss is probably going to be pissed he got arrested for that.”
“He’s just a bum pretending to be a gangster.”
“The news never said he was a part of a gang, so maybe he’s just lying.”

It’s true that Japanese news reports often clearly state if a suspect is a member of an organized crime group, something helped by the fact that they have to be legally registered as such. However, he has been given the label of “unemployed” instead, suggesting that he is not registered.

However, with the increasing number of restrictions on yakuza, it’s been said that the number of unregistered quasi-organized crime groups is one the rise. Such groups include the hangure (half grey) groups often affiliated with bosozoku biker gangs, who are also no strangers to tattoos.

But career criminal or not, his actions are just another example of the increasingly prevalent abusive behavior that retail workers have to worry about. It seems like it’s going to require a major cultural shift to improve this situation, that or introducing robots into customer service — big, strong robots that don’t take any crap.

Source: MBS News, The Sankei Shimbun, Itai News
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