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crime

Boss arrested for assaulting employee with a stun gun for being late

27 Comments
By Preston Phro, RocketNews24

We’ve all had bosses we didn’t like for one reason or another. Maybe their breath smelled as if they’d never even heard of a toothbrush or maybe they were too demanding. Or, heck, we bet some of you have had bosses who were just plain jerks. But no matter how much you might hate your boss, you’ll probably feel a bit better towards him or her after reading about this 28-year-old who was viciously assaulted by his boss after arriving late to work.

We don’t imagine that Yuji Serigano, the 29-year-old president of a real estate consulting company, woke up intending to assault his only employee on Feb 6. But that’s what ended up happening when the unnamed employee, a 28-year-old man, showed up about an hour and a half late to work.

Serigano, who was arrested by police this week, has been charged with injuring and unlawfully confining the younger man. According to reports, Serigano shocked his employee in the neck with a stun gun, in addition to hitting him with a flashlight, pulling a plastic bag over his head, stomping on him, and hitting the man over and over with a belt. According to one news report, the beating lasted for about 50 minutes, and Serigano even forced the employee put a hoodie on to keep blood from flying everywhere.

The employee apparently suffered severe injuries which took approximately three weeks to heal. In spite of his injuries, the employee continued going to work until the end of February when he got a note from a doctor and then went to consult with the police.

Serigano confessed to the accusations, explaining that after he warned the employee about being late, the younger man just laughed it off. Apparently this was what set Serigano off, and he told police that he decided he had to punish the young man more severely as he had been late to work numerous times.

Japanese Internet users reacted quite strongly to the news.

”I want this guy to go to jail and spend his whole life rotting behind bars!” ”Was this really in Japan?! LOL Terrifying! LOL” ”If this sort of company president appeared in a novel, surely we’d criticize it for being too unrealistic…”

Sources: Hachimakiko, Niconico News

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- 27-year-old in Japan arrested for 3-D printed pistol, says he didn’t know it was illegal -- Don’t like drinking with the boss? No Promotion For You! -- We’re going bananas over these amazing Attack on Titan…bananas

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27 Comments
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It's just as scary he continued to work there for three weeks.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The victim is an idiot for returning to work in such an extremely hostile work enviornment. Where was his common sense?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Where did he get a stun gun? aren't they supposed to be illegal in Japan? Go directly to jail do not pass go....

8 ( +8 / -0 )

What will it take for ME to get YOU into this a lovely 4-mat shared studio cell with zero mod-cons and armed guards? Location, location, location.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

It would have been helpful if this article explored further the issue of physical and emotional bullying and abuse that occurs in the workplace.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

What makes this loser any different from the bullies Who killed the young boy awhile ago? This type of thing happens way too often in this country. Violence for slights. Why are these so called men upset by such slights. Sick sick sick.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

"29-year-old president of a real estate consulting company" -- that, combined with the physical assault and the employee's blithe attitude about puncuality, has got "chimpira entrepreneur" written all over it. With the Olympics on the horizon, jiageya are supposedly making a comeback...

9 ( +10 / -1 )

If he continued to work like that, the job obviously meant something to him. Firing him would have done the trick to teach him a lesson.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Does this boss walk around with a baseball bat like Robert De Niro in The Untouchables?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I woulda' beat the ---- out of 'em !

0 ( +3 / -3 )

As Stephen Knight & Wipeout have alluded, I'm going to assume some connection to the yakuza simply because of the graphic nature of the beating. That said, when I worked in a Japanese publishing company about 7 years ago, I saw the leader of the sales division straddling the line of discipline/bullying. One of my Japanese peers told me to "ignore" it. The top-down mentality permeates all walks of life here.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I see this kind of this happen in gold coast australia, japanese restaurants, my flat mate a japanese girl working as a waitress, her boss regularly yells and pushes her around every week, putting her down, telling her she is useless and should just quit and go home. she was sitting on my kitchen floor one night crying telling me she wanted to quit, but that she liked her job, i told her she does not have to put up with this kind of abuse, I asked her did none of your co-workers step in to help you,,, no!!! she said, they just kept quiet and look at the floor. seems this sort of thing is just accepted in japanese society where a boss can just abuse his staff because he knows they will be shamed for quitting.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

"Serigano shocked his employee in the neck . stun gun, . hitting him with a flashlight . pulling a plastic bag over his head . stomping him . hitting the man over and over with a belt. The beating lasted for about 50 minutes"

Sure, fun is fun, but, 50 minutes? Come 'on, 20, max, maybe 25, but 50? That's just sick.

Fifty minutes of employee in the neck stun gun? That's thirty minutes too much.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It's just as scary he continued to work there for three weeks.

@paulinusa

I agree — both scary and bizarre.

Over my years in Japan I have seen numerous incidents where underlings (employees/students/athletes) were willing to endure horrendous verbal abuse, occasionally with a degree of 'taibatsu' (corporal punishment) as well. I think a lot of this acceptance of abuse from higher-ups comes from a mentality in Japan instilled in many people through the nation's jhs/hs sports programs where this sort of thing is rampant.

Japanese Olympic baseball team coach Senichi Hoshino aptly explained this mentality — and why people are more willing to endure/mete out abuse — in an interview with CNN (as told by Robert Whiting, "You Gotta Have Wa").

CNN asked Hoshino, “Is it true you once hit a player so hard he couldn’t eat for a week?”

Hoshino replied, “Yes. But it was necessary. . . . It’s a kind of tough love. . . . We are a family. If you look at a certain incidents, you may see some unbelievable violence, but you must look at the whole picture. There is a tremendous deep love that is shown above anything else. I admire the American way. Their coaches are very cheerful and encouraging. . . . But in Japan, we have our own way.”

5 ( +5 / -0 )

If the employee is constantly late, then FIRE his ass. No need for assault and what I would argue to be attempted murder

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I woulda' beat the ---- out of 'em ! i woulda ripped the stun gun from his hands and stun him back, with the words "I QUIT C****R!"

0 ( +0 / -0 )

April fools day in March ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yuji Serigano assaulted his only employee. Perhaps that's the only person who would work for Serigano. Why did he have only one employee? Did other people once work for him, and then flee in the face of his violence? How many more people did he assault? Surely any smart person wouldn't want to work for such a boss ...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

to assault his only employee ------ real estate consultant ..... Sounds like chimpira who want to get contract from subcontract (shita-uke) construction works. His desire to get link to yakuza is varnished now. Felony and attempted muderr charge is added beside illegal weapon possession. No chance to get into yakuza group There are stupid violent people like that in Japan.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If we have to live in a civillized society then monsters as such ought to be punished to the fullest extent of the law !! He should be made to experience what the pain of a stun gun feels like so that he may comprehend the severity of his transgressions plus endure the pain of electrical current induced into his body.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Idiot stupid employer has to pay heavy compensation to his victim and lock him up for 10 years in prison..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Given such vicious assault, only redeeming part of the horrible story is that he has somehow escaped death, probably by a hairbreadth. Hopefully, he'll get back to his own self in due course.

At any rate, what a horrible boss he is! Apart from the feudal era, or yakuza, I would never think in a million years that such a boss is still around in this modern age. Nevertheless, many employees in Japan may have bad chemistry with their boss.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The frustration of old school hard workers with the "satori sedai", the enlightened ones who no longer fear the old guard , boils over and is a common theme of lament in late night izakayas. Just last night an old geeza was pissing in my ear about how lazy and worthless this young generation is. The culture is changing and incidents like this will increase. Interesting to watch actually. The stun gun factor though is core , and does indeed smell of underground thuggery . Classic sign of the times article.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Only he certainly didn't "miss" this time....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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