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Whatever the field of business, one can usually find some staff who simply aren't earning their pay. And others may not be good team players who stir up morale problems at the office.
To deal with these individuals, reports Weekly Playboy (Aug 9), a new occupation called "yamesaseya" has appeared. These are specialists who apply various forms of skullduggery to coerce unwanted regular company staff to submit their resignations.
"With the prolonged recession, companies are nearing the limits of what they can do to cut costs," says Mr A, who's based in the metropolitan Tokyo area. "As a last resort, the ones still not able to pull off a recovery have begun to try to force out regular staff."
Ordinarily, A goes on to say, it's almost impossible to dismiss regular company staff who have not committed some serious infraction of company work rules. So that's where he and his colleagues come in. Their most straightforward method is to conduct a preliminary study of the target's behavioral patterns.
"Such a study is a pretty mundane, but achieves steady results," says Mr B, who is based in the Kansai area. "It's especially effective in getting rid of lazy workers."
B cites an example of a worker who consistently failed to boost his sales results. A tail was put on him for one week, and the operatives found that practically every day during working hours he went for a soak after lunch in a public bath followed later in the evening by a visit to a "pink" shop.
After the "yamesaseya" submitted snapshots of the target's various transgressions to his employers, the man was summoned by the personnel manager, who informed him that he'd been spotted patronizing the bath house and massage parlor by "various eyewitnesses."
Confronted with irrefutable evidence, the man had no choice but to resign.
Another team of "yamesaseya" operatives was hired by a group of five female employees at a company, who pooled their money to get rid of one of their bosses. The alleged offender, the head of the company's personnel division, was not only a serial sexual harasser; he also arranged to hire only the types of women he found personally attractive.
According to the aforementioned A, the first effort to nudge the man out involved complaining about the man's predatory sexual behavior to one of his company's main customers.
"But instead of raising an issue over it, they made efforts to sweep it under the carpet," explains A.
"So for our second try we arranged to have a female operative telephone the man's wife," A continues. "As it turned out, he'd had earlier troubles at a previous company and she knew all about his habits."
The wife was understandably infuriated and eager to join forces with her hubby's victims. By the time it was all over, the man had lost both his job and his home.
A has two femme fatales on his payroll, one in her late 20s who formerly worked as a cabaret club hostess, and a divorcee in her 40s.
Nevertheless one of A's female operatives says she and her colleagues maintain a rigid policy of never engaging in sex with a target.
"For instance, if we go to a hotel with the target, we'll steer him to one we know has no vacant rooms," she explains. "Then when we walk out together, another operative will be hiding in position to snap photos."
If the entrapped worker refuses to resign, the next step is to circulate the incriminating photos of him via emails on the company's internal network.
Operative B introduces another scam, which involves posing as a headhunter who approaches the targeted employee with the pretense of scouting him out for a higher-paying job.
Boasting of a recent success, B relates how he offering a target a new job paying 1.5 times more than his current wages. The man promptly submitted his resignation --- only to find that the new position that awaited him never existed.
"We don't know what became of him after that," B tells the magazine.
© Japan Today
32 Comments
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Starke
you can fire them legally, you just need to pay them severance, guess it is cheaper to blackmail and hire goons to do so than to pay the severance. I agree that this must only be for those small to medium sized domestic companies that do not budget for severance. Been involved in letting people go twice in Japan and it aint pretty but at least my company deals with responsibly and gives them a package good enough for them to survice while they look for another job. this blackmail method is just plain mean!
In the case of the 5 ladies, sexual harasement is dealt by HR but when it is the HR that is comitting the offense I can see where they got stuck.
jason6
The firing of the low-productivity worker was good old detective work, but other ones seem to be on the other side of legal to me. And then they describe the entrapment scenarios of snapping operatives leaving love hotels with their targets.. that is pure wrong on so many levels! Two wrongs don't make a right and I'm surprised they're still around, despite the vendettas against them. They probably protect themselves through secrecy more than their clients.
Carcharodon
new word of the week! I like it Mr jam_sandwich
What goes around comes around and in tight times you gotta get rid of the chaff from your company payroll. Work hard, do your job well and you will most likely be safe from being a yamesasaeya victim. Every company has these slackers, you all know one and if he/she was bumped would you be terribly upset?
The “window-seat tribe,” - mado giwa zoku are prime candidates these days
gaijinfo
giving somebody a specific goal AND a time frame to achieve it in, as well as consequences of not reaching it is one thing. (regardless of how difficult the goal may be). This also puts everybody on notice that wants to work for the company in the future. This company has certain rules and standards, and you must maintain them to maintain employment. Completely above board, morally, ethically, and legally.
These sniveling cowards, on the other hand, are deciding to fire them, but they don't have the balls to confront them, so they hired these scam artists to ruin their lives, and make the problem go away.
At the very least they could give a serious performance review, tell them they've six months to shape up or ship out. They're not doing that. They are just making a cowardly decision and hiring goons to carry it out.
MrDog
There is also the "Learn English in 2 years, or you're fired".
Oh, no no no, thats just the cool, international way to run your company ;)
SaveOurCountry
These people that do this are basically gangsters, that for the most part can produce on their own so the try to destroy people that can produce, so they do not look so bad. This type always steal credit for others people accomplishments. University of Florida Economics Book 101 last chapter described these sick criminals to a tee. The weak always bind into group to get their strength, they have no power on there own. There power is siphoning the works and accomplishments of truly more superior people in every way. I have seen thes type up close. They are pure scum and go from the bottom of every company to the top of every government.
obaachan
This, sadly, is how things are done in Japanese business. The surreptitious manoeuvre, the anonymous whistleblower. Sad to hear that it still hasn't changed, this far into the 21st century.
gaijinfo
Absolutely disgusting. Just shows that Japanese have both no compassion for others, as well as zero backbone when it comes to dealing with their problems directly.
Those poor five females mentioned couldn't have possibly refuted his sexual advances on their own, now could they? Firs they tried ratting him out to the customers, and then they had to have paid some girl (I like how they call these idiots "operatives") call and tattle to his wife.
I guess ruining another person's life is much preferable to the terrifying thought of standing up for yourself, or your business.
nath
haircuts, bath houses, pachinko, soap land, baseball games all in work hours is not uncommon at all in a Japanese company. When the economy is good it is even more rampant. I see it every day
dontpanic
This contemptable business operates on the edge of legality. Im sure their behaviour will come back to bite them in the arse.
jam_sandwich
Oh boy... this article just points to bigger problems in Japan. Using greasy behaviour to combat greasy behaviour, it's pretty much vigilante justice here. The fact that the scumbag boss was known for his scumbagousity, and yet left to rule a company says alot. It also says alot that the women had little recourse for sexism, and harassment in the work place.
The guy going to the bath during working hours is pretty typical of alot of Japanese forced to work late, yet he got what he deserved. As well, it's within a company's right to lay off those it sees fit. God, it was frustrating just reading this article... couldn't imagine actually working in that miasma.
sf2k
conspiracy to entrap, conspiracy to blackmail... what ridiculous childish behaviour. Just fire people then.
Wakarimasen
After the “yamesaseya” submitted snapshots of the target’s various transgressions to his employers, the man was summoned by the personnel manager, who informed him that he’d been spotted patronizing the bath house and massage parlor by “various eyewitnesses
Ridiculous- you need to hire a specialist to do this stuff?
SaveOurCountry
Many people are being harassed in the Japanese companys. Especially foreign workers from China and Korea and Phillipines. Harassment is not unusual, prejudice is rampant. They try to destroy good! people for nothing other then being a vindictive group. This is not just a few instance but a culture of sickness.
gogogo
I don7t get it.... Blackmailing is illegal yet this article is all "girl power" blackmailing is fun!
MoBass4u
Alphaape: I say "Don't sh*t where you sleep" and I thought the same thing about no EEO to speak of. Mind blowing that such tactics have to be used to get rid of dirt.
Alphaape
After the “yamesaseya” submitted snapshots of the target’s various transgressions to his employers, the man was summoned by the personnel manager, who informed him that he’d been spotted patronizing the bath house and massage parlor by “various eyewitnesses.”
Confronted with irrefutable evidence, the man had no choice but to resign.
Unless it was company policy that this type of behavior is not authorized, I would have told them to pack sand. What a person does on his own time is none of the companies business. I am sure that those that wanted him fired probably had to adjust their schedules so as to not meet him in any of those places.
I guess there is not such a thing as the Equal Employment Office to bring these types of complaints to. So just go about and do a sneaky trick to get the boss fired. No wonder there is so much suspicion in this country. For the guy who was fired, and all of the rest of the bosses out there that may potentially be this type take this advice I learned a long time ago, "It's best not to s**t in your own back yard." Take it someplace else.
Beelzebub
The merit-based wage and promotion system went into effect at many companies, but there's still a lot of old-style factionalism among people who attended the same university, etc. and a worker without these sort of connections might be arbitrarily given a lower rating even though he's not necessarily a slacker.
djuice
This shows a general lack of moral conviction in Japan.
djuice
What's wrong with "if you don't perform to standards for whatever reason, you're fired!"
GW
A few people here seem to forget the little guy in Jpn aint got much of any power, chances of fighting any of this & getting REAL compensation your better off buying lottery tickets.
J-companies have always had to to do slimy stuff to get people to quit because the law makes it hard to let people go here for any reason. Companies use transfers, all matters of bullying,office off in the corner by the coat racks/crapper, did I mention transfers that is the most used one
hrd1231
This new occupation of "Yamesaseya" sounds a lot like something the Yaks would be doing.
fussagaijin
Sounds like insurance fraud investigators in the states. Bill says he hurt his back on the job and needs to be on convalescent leave while receiving full pay and benefits. Then one of these companies spot Bill playing football and doing the mambo, despite his "injury"...priceless.
sourpuss
Is all of this legal? It's mostly blackmail, which is not.
noborito
So childish way to deal with things. Japanese live in their own world.
sk4ek
All of these tactics skirt the boundaries of legality on many, many fronts. Given the potential liability, it is unlike that any major Japanese corporations would stoop to using this kind of service--they have plenty of other ways of fixing personnel problems. But I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of thing from any of the thousands of medium-sized companies that are fighting for survival these days.
Sarge
Donald Trump would have a good laugh at these yamesaseya.
Eddisofbextar
Hm... and if fired dude ever finds out, he will cash in huge on entrapment civil suit.
Anyone with half a brain would see this as such anyways.
Ultradude
Well, they can definitely be held libel for fraud if someone signs a job offer and there is no job. My BS meter is pegging on that one. The whole interview process and offer letter is faked? Or the target had the mental capacity of a kumquat to begin with?
cwhite
Must be some really sleezy back alley companies that need to hire these guys. If they did any of the things above to a point that it hurts the individual then a law suit would eventually emerge or the head chopped of guy burns the yamesaseya office down while stabbing the workers one by one. Too much of a risk to go out and destroy ones life when they lose everything they have little to lose, but lots of anger. i.e Mazda serial killer
blunderbuss
Am I the only one who finds this contemptible behavior on the part of the bosses?
kyoken
Thats a myth. Read "The foreign bosses power pill".