So-called “customer harassment” (カスタマーハラスメント, or kasuhara for short) continues to plague Japan, as customers increasingly take out their everyday frustrations on store staff and government employees. Now, Kumamoto City has become the latest local government to say it’ll help employees hide their identities better to prevent both online and real-world harassment.
Starting on December 16th, city employee’s names on name tags will no longer display their full name. Instead, they’ll simply list the employee’s last names. Previously, the badges displayed both full names and employee photos.
In a survey conducted last year, nearly 10% of employees say they’ve been threatened with online harassment by angry locals. Some have threatened to post their personal information on social media. Others have said they’d find the employee’s personal social media accounts and vent their feelings there.
Unseen Japan has been covering the rise in customer harassment since 2019. A 2020 survey by labor union UA Zensen showed 46.8% of service workers reporting they’d been verbally or physically assaulted by customers. Many employees surveyed say they believe customer harassment is increasingly becoming an easy way for people to relieve stress.
The situation only seems to worsen as prices continue to rise in Japan while wages remain stagnant. As a result, more companies and local governments are announcing aggressive anti-cusotmer harassment policies.
In May, Japan Railways East Group said it would take a hard stance against customer harassment, which includes refusing service to repeat offenders. Tokyo Metropolis is also working on the nation’s first anti-customer harassment ordinance.
Other companies are helping employees hide their identities as well. Combini chains Family Mart and Lawson let employees use Roman letters and even pseudonyms for their name tags. Discount home goods retailer 3COINS replaced all of their store employee’s names on name tags with the word “Staff.”
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