Police in Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto Prefecture, have referred to prosecutors the owner of a girls bar, the manager, three staff and three customers, all aged between 23 and 38, for professional negligence over the death of a 31-year-old female employee in 2022.
The incident occurred in September 2022, Kyoto Shimbun reported. Police said the employee collapsed to the floor in a drunken state while serving customers, but the bar failed to take appropriate measures.
The bar called an ambulance about an hour after the woman collapsed. She was taken to hospital where she died of acute alcohol poisoning.
According to investigators, the bar manager and others said they thought the woman was just drunk and sleeping. The three customers were also referred to prosecutors for not doing anything to help the woman.
The bar has a "drink back" system, where the more alcohol employees drink from customers' orders, the more they are paid, and police believe that this may have been the reason why the employee drank too much.
© Japan Today
21 Comments
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JeffLee
Yep, the clown or clowns responsible for that policy deserve time behind bars. They never heard of watered-down "lady drinks"?
wallace
"The bar has a "drink back" system"
That needs to stop or end.
Jonathan Prin
In many countried this system would be banned. Why ?
Because it asks to drink alcohol on a working shift basis.
And alcohol is not for everyone and is basically a moderate poison (ethanol).
I like drinking alcohol but being forced to get a higher wage, no way !
Health first.
wallace
Drinking alcohol during all other occupations is illegal and bridges health and safety at work. They need better protection.
Zaphod
wallace
It is very typical for that kind of bar in Japan. In the event, I find the accusations difficult. It is very typical to see drunk people slouched on chairs in Japanese bars, are the prosecutors demanding to call an ambulance every time? Seems it would be difficult for the staff and customers to decide that, unless they were keeping exact tabs on how much she had.
garypen
True. Alcohol is far more harmful than cannabis.
bobcatfish
I would hope that the duty of care for drunk customers would be lower than that of the actual bar staff
daikaka
This is not uncommon, many women die from this each year. The drink back system is also very cheap, the girls there can only get 10-20%, while a guy host would receive 40-60% with a higher base guaranteed pay.
GuruMick
Zaphod...yeah...if a drunk is slouched on a chair, investigate , check breathing, pulse etc.
Maybe call an ambulance.
Australia has fairly new laws, not uniformly enforced, prohibiting sale to someone already intoxicated.
IMadeAnAccountJustForThis
I doubt that at all, after all the business is increasing her pay on the amount that she drank. I bet they know EXACTLY how many she had.
What a horrible place to work with systems such as that.
grc
I’m sure the law will change after this incident
Lindsay
I guess employees in Japanese girly bars don’t have to have an RSA certificate. (Responsible Service of Alcohol)
Gaijinjland
I thought these places encouraged the girls get the customers to order them drinks, which unbeknownst to the customers, would be non alcoholic like tea or something? Scam the customers into paying exorbitant prices for nothing and the girls don’t get drunk. Not great for the guys who are dumb enough to visit these places but a win-win for the bars and their employees.
Zaphod
GuruMick
OK, you have your work cut out in Japan. A lifetime project.
Fairly new Australian laws do not apply in Japan.
GuruMick
Zaphod..... Japan has lessened its ciggie smoking by various laws and means.
Not impossible to envisage changes to alcohol service in bars.
Not a "Oh well, what can you do " matter when death is avoidable, and negligence lies as the cause.
Yohan
This happened in September 2022, more than 2 years ago.
I wonder why these 3 customers should be kept responsible for not helping her.
This happened inside a bar, there were a manager and 3 other staff present at that time when it happened.
It was their duty to take care of this female employee who collapsed to the floor.
I have seen many people unknown to me who were obviously fully drunk lying and sleeping in the street and in railway stations and trains in evening in Japan - but I think it is not my duty to help, I think it is voluntary to do something to help them.
GuruMick
In a nation so full of alcohol access points, you would think some "drunk patrols " or "drunk protocol " for bars would be more widespread.
I,ve never known a place where the Chemist Shop sells alcohol until Japan.
Jim
The owners and staff would have known that the women had taken in alcohol excessively and it would definitely lead to alcohol poisoning! Yet they did nothing at all to assist her! Then it took the ‘ wonderful ‘ Japanese police over 2 years to refer the case to the ‘ wonderful ‘ Japanese prosecutors and I’m sure the Japanese prosecutors won’t bring charges against any of these offenders. The offenders will just walk away free… just another usual day in Japan!
iron man
I concentrate on the bar management and 'owners' employees are paid to drink from customer's orders? or bonus to encourage customer to buy them drinks. The latter is well known and legal. the former is downright criminal fraud. Did the customers deliberately get her canned? if so... can them!
WoodyLee
Well done prosecutors.
Zaphod
Jim
Why would they have known that? Drinking is part of the job her, and everyone would assume she had a way to handle it. It is a big jump from having a drink too much to assume alcohol poisoning, especially from staff. And she was 31, so not complelety new to drinking.
It is safe to assume that they picked her up and put her on couch, something you see all the time here. If bars were to call an ambulance immediately every time someone conks out, there would not be enough ambulance in the country too handle the chaos.