New regulations banning customer harassment come into force

Dissatisfied customers who verbally and sometimes physically confront waiters, sales clerks and other types of service providers now risk being charged under newly passed local regulations.

Referred to as kasuhara (customer harassment), the situation had become so intolerable for some workers that local governments were finally moved to crack down, and from April 1, ordinances prohibiting kasuhara went into force in three prefectures (Tokyo, Hokkaido and Gunma) and one municipality (Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture).

Several more prefectures, reports Weekly Playboy (April 28), are said to be in the process of enacting similar statutes.

The article lists 24 specific types of customer harassment, issued by metro Tokyo, that will serve as guidelines for taking action. They include:

• to fling objects or spit
• to defame a worker while other people are looking on
• to demand dogeza (to bow while prostrating oneself on the floor)
• to follow them around or stalk them at their workplace
• to disparage their mode of dress or appearance
• to post a photo of the service provider or image of an individual's name tag on a social network without obtaining prior consent
• to insist the worker visit the claimant's home to apologize

One question that arises, notes Weekly Playboy, is that it's not always easy to differentiate between justifiable claims and bona fide customer harassment.

"In the case of legitimate claims, there is typically some deficiency in the product or service, and the claimant is requesting that the situation be rectified," explains Kaname Murasaki, director general of the Osaka-based Japan Harassment Association, who added, "In the case of customer harassment, on the other hand, the demands typically exceed rectification. This would include remarks like, 'Your apology is insufficient' or demanding that the service provider to 'Show sincerity.'"

Okay, suppose you're eating in a restaurant and find what appears to be a human hair in your food. What is the right way to make a claim?

"Under ordinary circumstances," says Murasaki, "I think you should simply say, 'I found a hair in my food, so would you mind replacing this with another serving?'

"To demand more than what you originally received would be considered customer harassment. In other words, after the dish is replaced with another one, requesting (or demanding) some form of compensation for one's ruffled sensibilities, such as a discount on the cost, or a voucher enabling a discount for a future order, would constitute harassment.

"It goes without saying that loudly demanding some sort of compensation would certainly be harassment, but even if said in a polite tone of voice it would still constitute harassment," Murasaki remarked.

"In Tokyo, customer harassment is defined as 'Behavior that is extremely disruptive and harms the working environment,'" says Shigeto Aoki, a senior director at the Association of Consumer Affairs. "Even a remark such as 'Fuzaken na!' (Are you kidding me?) in some cases can be regarded as customer harassment."

One way to narrow down the definition is that a customer complaint, whether to the provider's face or over the telephone, would be something that continues for over 30 minutes. Another criteria concerns the number of repetitions. Repeating the same complaint two or three times may be acceptable, but more than that may constitute harassment," said Aoki.

"The demographic segment that most frequently engages in customer harassment are males between the ages of 45 and 59 years of age," Toyo University professor Masayuki Kiryu tells the magazine. "By occupation they include salaried workers in sales and other jobs, business owners, company directors and self-employed people, and typically belong to households with annual income of over 10 million yen."

According to other surveys as well, middle-aged or older men are far more likely to engage in kasuhara than women.

"Older men also tend to occupy a higher social status, and if a service provider makes some sort of mistake, they'll come down hard on them," Kiryu points out.

Along with warning those who might be charged under the new ordinances, service providers need to learn how work smart and nip complaints in the bud.

"They should politely say to a troublesome customer 'I'm sorry but I can't deal with this on my own, so let me talk to my supervisor,' or take some other measure to open up more physical or psychological space between them and the customer," Kiryu advises. "Or at least they can request assistance from a co-worker.

"Or, they can adopt a resolute attitude and refuse outright, by informing the customer, 'What you're requesting is prohibited under the customer harassment ordinance.'

"Just by being able to invoke the new ordinance makes it significant in its own right," Kiryu remarked.

© Japan Today