crime

5 men arrested over death of work colleague

24 Comments

Police in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, have arrested five men, ranging in age from their 20s to 40s, on suspicion of fatally assaulting their 38-year-old male colleague on the company’s premises.

According to police, Takamasa Oyokawa, 30, who lives in Ichinoseki City, was arrested Wednesday along with four male work colleagues living in Oshu and Ichinoseki, Sankei Shimbun reported. Police said the five men are accused of punching and kicking their colleague, Yoshiro Mita, at their construction company site just past 6 p.m. on Monday. The victim was taken to hospital where he died at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday. 

Police said the five men have admitted to the charge but have so far not discussed the cause of the trouble between them.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

24 Comments
Login to comment

I work with construction guys here in Japan fulltime and i dont take any of their prejudice crap or bullying attempts .

I don't back down and when challenged physically i win.

Ive earned my respect .

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Worked on a construction site. the daily work directive was, the nail that sticks up shall be hammered down

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Shogun36. Those pant are to be worn with gum boots that why.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What else would you expect when a majority of construction crews are filled with JHS delinquents, wannabe yankii bosuzoku and greazy slackers?

so who built your house? By yourself? Show some respect.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The contempt towards subordinates is not just a blue collar thing, I once hired a middle aged guy for a sales role who hit one of my engineers with a book at a customer meeting, because he didn't like how the guy was sitting.

I told him he was lucky the engineer didn't hit back and warned him not to repeat it again.

He then started verbally abusing some of the junior guys during status meetings with customers, that was the final straw for me, kicked him out!

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Japanese have a very bad temper, thank God guns are not allowed here

it would be even worse than the U.S

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

@ lamilly, I would rather not thank you.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

i also asked aabout those absurd pants ,,,i was assured there was no sfaety issue

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I haven't seen a large construction site around my area since the start of Covid.

Do they still wear those absurd wide pants where the width is as long as the height? How are those things even regulation or safe around construction sites? Do some squats or something instead to fill out them skinny jeans.

And why is all of this such a surprise. What else would you expect when a majority of construction crews are filled with JHS delinquents, wannabe yankii bosuzoku and greazy slackers? That's including the foremen. Fools don't know how to just do the work, get their paycheck and go home.

Sad hyena pack mentality. Being on the bully side is always better than being bullied side.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Thanks for sharing pertinent experiences everyone, lots of us uninformed gaijins will surely learn from those

0 ( +5 / -5 )

I worked at a construction site part time in university. My Japanese superior kicked me for going to the bathroom. I kicked him back. I think he was fired and they gave me 3 months pay upfront on condition I resign.

Hahahaha almost laughed out my ramen

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Also, I have noticed there is zero "honor" in Japanese fights, or the idea of leaving a guy down and out. Guy down on the floor not putting up a fight anymore? Who cares?! Let's keep on kicking him in the head anyways!

1 ( +10 / -9 )

From my experience in Japan…when Japanese men have a confrontation, there are only two choices. Back down and apologize or fight to near death.

I have stopped a few fights, because ordinary Japanese don’t want to get involved.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

oh construction, big surprise

2 ( +6 / -4 )

They could have just a verbal fight not killing him. Problem here is people around don't interfere. Just watch or walk away.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Killed the guy! Sounds like the type of thing that might involve yaks. We'll probably never find out.

Reminds me of one particular incident: Back in the mid-1990s, I worked for a relatively small company which had a boss that liked to hire cheap laborers from Asian countries, regardless of their language skill. One day, I show up for work to find out they had hired two Southeast Asian guys, "Yamada" and "Kato." Yamada understood Japanese well but the other didn't comprehend a lick so Yamada always had to translate. However, we conversed regularly as they both understood a decent amount of English and complained about their treatment. On about day six, after hearing the Japanese foreman yelling and berating his compatriot numerous times daily, Yamada couldn't take it anymore, picked up a shovel and attacked the foreman, opening a gash on his head. This is all going on in a driving rain. One Japanese guy picked up a hatchet and was about to attack Yamada. Then members on each side armed themselves with various power tools found at the genba. I and another American colleague just watched in amazement at first before I decided to step in and calm things down. The foreman fired them both on the spot. Luckily, it was a glancing blow to the head, and, although bleeding a lot, wasn't a life-threatening situation. I've seen some things go on at these small companies including a good amount of bullying and harassment and have also been close to wringing a neck or two myself on several occasions. Very toxic environment sometimes.

11 ( +18 / -7 )

@Gaijinland you just made my day.

14 ( +23 / -9 )

I worked at a construction site part time in university. My Japanese superior kicked me for going to the bathroom. I kicked him back. I think he was fired and they gave me 3 months pay upfront on condition I resign.

24 ( +33 / -9 )

Having worked in various blue collar jobs for a while in Japan I can attest to the extremely toxic work environment there.

13 ( +23 / -10 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites