I am working at a small company in Tokyo. There are 5 of us working as a team. The team leader today, physically attacked me pushing me around Infront of the team members during “chorei”. There was no provocation on my part and, this is not the first time either. I walked away out of the the room to the lockers to grab my bag while he is pushing me around from behind and verbally insulting me. In the process braking my glasses. He didn’t actually hit me but pushed me really hard.
I talked to the owner of the company who promised to look into the matter.
What are my options? File a complaint with the police? Labor office/hello work?
37 comments
Seriously, what are you thinking?
Assault is assault, go and report it to police first, HR two. Claim the damages for the broken glasses too. Insulting anybody at the workplace is unacceptable. Pushing is way worse than that.
HR may be on your side and on the side of the boss, nobody knows. But assault is a serious issue and most likely the boss will be fired and you will be fine.
If company owner said that he will “look into it”, it is probably a very bad company.
Go to the police.
I’d go to the police.
Doesn’t have to be hitting, pretty much anyone putting their hands on you in a threatening manner is assault.
>What are my options?
Small company so I’m guessing the owner is also HR. At a minimum get a price for fixing your glasses and tell the owner you want compensation for that.
>File a complaint with the police?
The police are for criminal complaints. If you want to file a criminal complaint by all means call them. Just be 100% certain you want to file a criminal complaint. Do not waver. They will try to talk you out of filing criminal charges. You are going to have to go multiple places and talk with multiple people. **DO NOT GO TO THE KOBAN** you need to call the police and make an appointment to visit one of the main police stations, the koban or just calling the police is not going to accomplish anything. They will make it very difficult on you but if you persevere you can get a criminal complaint filed.
>Labor office/hello work?
Labor office is for labor law violations. Assault/power harassment/etc. are against labor law, not sure how much they can actually do other than starting an investigation other than advising you to contact the police and get a private attorney to sue for power harassment. Just be aware that the lawyer is going to be a bit expensive and the payout won’t be significant (think a million jpy or so).
Hello Work is for finding a job/unemployment. They are not going to be able to do anything to help you unless you’re looking for a new job. On second thought maybe they can help you.
I’m gonna be the guy to ask, how the hell did you end up in this situation?
Sounds like a police matter. If you feel bad about that, I’m pretty sure if you shoved someone around, they’d call the cops on you too. That kind of bullying will only get worse if it’s not stamped out. Maybe talk to your boss and inform them of your intentions to get the police involved.
100% assault. Go to the police.
As others have suggested go to the police and insist on filing a criminal complaint (higai todoke / 被害届). I would also file a complaint with the labour bureau. Moreover, I would suggest a visit to the hospital with complaints of muscle pain / body pain due to being assaulted at work. This will help substantiating your claims when filing complaints with the police and the labour bureau.
Labor office is the way. I hope everything works out for you!
Honestly I would just quit if the person in charge does nothing. Even if you report it to the police and they do something, it’s almost certainly not going to turn into a pleasant place to work overnight.
When he push you，you should fall down and call the police call the ambulance，then there will have a official record and talk to your lawyer，asshole should lost his job and go to jail.
HR departments don’t actually work for the benefit of employees. HR departments work for and are paid by company owners.
Police first.
Sadly this happens often. My boyfriend was verbally abused and threatened (death threats) by his boss for months before it took a mental toll on him and he quit
Go to the police. Are there security cameras? Get the video. Witnesses? You’re going to need them.
I just cannot imagine being in this situation.
Imagine your boss literally attacking you in front of everyone. Honestly I think I would pretend to slip as a result of his push and smash my face on the wall, just to make him think he’s killed me and guarantee his suffering/money.
Personally, if you are trying to keep the company alive by not getting him fired, and the owner is unwilling to do anything about it, I would give a warning that the next time it happens there will be retaliation, then if he pushes you again, deck him in front of everybody. Self-defense. Although I’m sure I’ll be downvoted to oblivion for this comment, I just can’t stand bullies and they don’t ever seem to learn without violence returned on them.
don’t hit him, go to the cops name all the people that were there, it doesn’t have to be a slap he touched you!
Curious, are the lone foreign person working in this team? Also if he pushes around the other workers as well?
That teamleader should be fired. That’s Power harrassment and that’s illegal. Go to the police ASAP.
I appreciate your restraint I don’t think I would have responded in the same way lol. Wishing you luck in this sticky situation.
Start looking for a new job either way.
Going to labor would be wise. Also start recording audio.
Go to the police, sue the company/owner, get a new job. Actually, you should have called the police immediately once it happened. Don’t wait for the owner to “investigate”.
If he does it again, ask him out right in front of all other employees if he is in love with you?
Point out he only ever touches you, follows you, wants to near you. State that generally in your country when people act like that, it’s because they like that person!
While you are flattered, you are not interested.
It’s not a crime to ask a question, and I bet he would leave you well alone in order to make sure no one gets the wrong impression.
Ya just leave the place. No sense reporting if it’s going to make others suffer even more. You have a lot more options than those who are staying behind. If they had other options they would have left already. I’m sorry OP.
I see it as you have a couple options. Ethier go to the police and file assault charges or next time he hassles you, beat the very living fuck out of the guy if your capable of doing so.
Go to the police now. Don’t wait for your boss to find a way to cover it up, don’t wait for your attacker to convince every witness that you were at fault, don’t wait for them to go to the police and claim you were the attacker, just go to the police now. File your report.
Kinda need more information, here.
The guy pushed you because the cops can’t do much about such conflicts when there is no punching. So, going to the cops isn’t going to help; just make things worse. Clearly you’re different and he’s attempting to gain superiority over you. If it just feels a bit like hazing or being tested (remember, japan is essentially early 80’s mentality) and you’re funny, throw some funny insults his way to get his friends to laugh at him… maybe it’ll satiate that type of situation.
You told the boss. You gotta be strong (by the way, you’re already looking for another job at this point anyway, because this isn’t going away just because you complain). “where is my apology!”, “what kind of company is this?”. But not, ‘I’m gonna call the cops’ or, ‘the next time..’; you don’t know the relationship between this guy and the boss.
Get it on camera. point the camera at him. If he actually does lose his shit and strike you. You’re winning. But, you’ve got to ham up the victim part, here. You can’t hit back.
If you want to hit back, in Japan, you have to learn to fight without fighting (first, you have to learn how to fight). Meaning, there can’t be any punches thrown… that look like punches thrown. An accidental headbutt (Holyfield), an accidental elbow while wearing a loose jacket. Making a strike look like you’re falling down or turning to help the person. Immediately followed by, ‘oh, are you ok? sorry’.
All of this is just to keep your self esteem intact, because that’s what he’s breaking down, and it won’t stop. And soon, others are going to start at it too. Beyond this, you have to quit the job and find another; it’s not going to stop.
If you can read Japanese, this might be a useful article:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/konnoharuki/20180908-00095822
Complaint police, and start looking for new job. Dont quit just yet.
Similar thing happened to me three years ago, but I didn’t report anything to anyone, kept my head down, and continued working there for two more years. Don’t be like me. Report the SOB.
If I was in your situation and wanted to stay with the company I would schedule a meeting with your boss and the bully and make it clear the agenda is to discuss the event and work out a solution.
Be open about the fact you want to stay, call out that you understand that the TL being fired isn’t realistic but also that his behaviour is completely unacceptable. Don’t threaten either of them with reporting to the police or labour department etc but if there is any further bullying take sick leave and then file a complaint.
Take control of the situation and be calm but absolutely firm.
I worked for a black company that had a company owner who would go off and assault employees — one apparently ending in a giant fight. I wasn’t there for that one but according to my team I was the replacement.
Police and HR aside, you really need to evaluate if it’s worth being in such a negative environment. I left my job after six months because it was just mentally draining and after the boss decided to focus his anger on me and berate me in front of everyone.
Yeah fuck that. Run, my guy. Run.
Report to police and find a lawyer.
Don’t return to work. If they fire you, even more reason to get a lawyer. Do you have any witnesses?
With your actions, you have to vote for what you stand for. Do you stand for physical and verbal aggression? If so, then stay silent. If not, then speak up.
File an official police report. Now.
it’s normal in japan that’s what cops gonna tell you as well 😂😂
I have worked in East Asia. From what I’ve seen this is not uncommon. Japan is actually not too bad compared to China or South Korea.
This is something Westerners have a hard time accepting but no one is going to do anything. From my experience, anyone you complain to will either placate you with some fancy assurances or straight out laugh at you.