crime

Man orders female store clerk to prostrate herself over misunderstanding with his change

17 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

While it’d be an exaggeration to call them “rules,” Japan has lots of little manners points that customers are expected to follow when shopping at convenience stores. And on the flip side, there are certain operating procedures that the employees generally follow too, in order to make sure everyone has a smooth and pleasant shopping experience.

For example, cash is king in Japan, and it’s not uncommon for customers to pay for even small items, like a single steamed bun, with a 10,000-yen bill. When giving change, most clerks are trained to hand customers the bills first and then place the coins atop the bills, since that’s usually the quickest way to complete the transaction and move on to the next waiting customer.

But things happened a little differently at a convenience store in Nagoya’s Minami Ward on the morning of Dec 27, when a 47-year-old man walked into the store at around 9 a.m. and made a purchase that came to just a few hundred yen. The man paid with a 10,000-yen bill, and when the 31-year-old woman who was working the register handed him the coins from his change first, he assumed she wasn’t going to give him the nine thousand-yen bills he had coming to him.

At this point, the man had two options for rectifying the problem: calmly ask about his as-yet unreceived nine thousand-yen bills, or go completely ballistic. He opted for the later, bellowing at the female clerk: “I’ll kill you! Get down on your knees and prostrate yourself in apology!”

Naturally, the police were promptly summoned. However, it wasn’t the clerk who called them, but the angry customer himself. “I paid with a 10,000-yen bill, but she only gave me the coins in change,” he told the officers. Meanwhile, the police asked the clerk for her side of the story, whereupon she told them that she was just about to hand the man the bills for his change when he began threatening her with death and demanding feudal-era contrition.

So in the end the man got his change, but also got arrested. Really, it’s hard to imagine things turning out any other way, since telling someone you’re going to kill them right before you yourself get the police involved is usually going to end badly for you.

However, there may have been a method to the man’s madness. In Japan, it’s customary for police reports to include suspects’ professions, and in this case the man was listed as “unemployed.” Though he apparently could at least scrape together 10,000 yen, it’s possible the man is living in abject poverty or even homeless, and so perhaps he figured getting arrested would at least guarantee him a roof over his head and food on his plate while he’s being processed, especially with a severe cold snap predicted to hit Japan over the coming weekend.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Tokai TV via Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- How to spot the new sophisticated counterfeit bills circulating in Japan

-- For chivalry, Japanese man tells female store clerk “I aint got nothing to say to you!”

-- Small Hokkaido bookshop’s unique service is getting business from all over Japan

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

17 Comments
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There is more to this story than what was embellished here, no way the cops get there that fast.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Unemployed in Japan means living off his wealthy parents not homelessness.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Is this called "strategic jailing"?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

"Unemployeed" just means he doesn't currently have a job. That doesn't mean he didn't save lots of money or invest well over the prior decades.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Call it criminal stupidity!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Still don’t know what prostrate means.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Still don’t know what prostrate means.

I think they are using that as a translate for dogeza (a bow done from seiza - extreme apology).

4 ( +4 / -0 )

There is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. Impatience and immaturity at its most extreme. If he'd waited a second or two, he would have received the rest of his change in a calm and timely manner, but no. He chose to go ballistic and issue death threats. This guy needs anger management courses, and a lifetime ban from that store. There is no excuse, not even "strategic jailing" to justify his behaviour, and the psychological harm it could cause the cashier.

@Yubaru: Read again. The article states that it was the customer who called the police, either in a fit of madness or else a part of this theoretical "strategic jailing". Either way, he called the police and waited for them to show up.

@Goodlucktoyou: If you've ever seen The Lion King, you've seen prostration. The scene where all the animals are bowing down before Mufasa in reverence of Simba's birth: that's basically it. With people, you get down on your knees, place your forehead on the ground in front of your knees and your hands palms-down on the floor just in front of that. It's basically taking apologising to the extreme and then some. I know of no other country that even has people doing this besides Japan.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

 The article states that it was the customer who called the police, either in a fit of madness or else a part of this theoretical "strategic jailing". Either way, he called the police and waited for them to show up.

Cops here don't show up "fast"

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Ding! Ring the loon bell! We have another one! What a pathetic individual making death threats to a young girl over his change. Just another Japanese bully!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

"made a purchase that came to just a few hundred yen. The man paid with a 10,000-yen bill, and when the 31-year-old woman who was working the register handed him the coins from his change first, he assumed she wasn’t going to give him the nine thousand-yen bills he had coming to him.

At this point, the man had two options for rectifying the problem: calmly ask about his as-yet unreceived nine thousand-yen bills, or go completely ballistic. He opted for the later, bellowing at the female clerk: “I’ll kill you! Get down on your knees and prostrate yourself in apology!”

At this point the clerk should have put the 9,000 in front of him and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Take your change and get out of here and don't ever come back!"

"So in the end the man got his change, but also got arrested."

Good.

"he figured getting arrested would at least guarantee him a roof over his head and food on his plate while he’s being processed, especially with a severe cold snap predicted to hit Japan over the coming weekend."

So, in Japan, the third biggest economy in the world, if you run out of money, you starve or freeze to death? Damn.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Though he apparently could at least scrape together 10,000 yen, 

He gave her a ten thousand yen note. You don't "scrape together" a ten thousand yen note!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Everybody could've a bad day

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How about the security cameras behind every cash register?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sounds like my typical Japanese Boss.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Yubaru: once again, you're not reading what is being said. The guy called the police, he waited, they came, they arrested him. The speed at which they arrived is entirely irrelevant if he's waiting for them to arrive. The point that matters is that he called the police, either believing they'd bacl him up or else for this "strategic jailing" hypothesis, and that he waited for them to arrive. All the while this poor cashier was probably in a state of fear, hoping that her prostration was enough to keep him from carrying out his death threat.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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