Sapporo blast occurred after 120 spray cans were emptied

This fragrance it is assumed helps get tenants into apartments, but maybe you are better off ending this practise and cleaning instead

In light of revelations that Apaman didn't provide a service that customers paid for, it may be a good time for regulators to come take a look at how else they may have scammed customers.

This type of poor decision making starts from the top down, and some large fines should help encourage the removal of incompetent managers from the upper ranks.

If these people thought it was a good idea to discharge all of these spray cans, would it have been so difficult to do it outdoors? Wouldn't discharging them outdoors have been the natural thing to do? Who would want to be inside a room in which dozens of spray cans had been emptied? So many questions, so few answers.

I will never deal with Apaman again! They were just trash and never did anything our tenants paid for.

"carry out the odor removal service for properties despite customers having paid for it, he said" I wonder how many people who own properties in this area might be bringing forward a claim of fraud? if some one has paid for a service and you have bought items to do the job, why don't they just do it properly and use them?.

The office had kept unused cans because there were some cases in which it did not carry out the odor removal service for properties despite customers having paid for it

Another company, another scam, another incredibly dumb action. And what a waste! A toxic one at that!

I hope you learned a lesson about how to save money!

Similar experience myself.

I can go even better to those who have been hit by the "cleaning fee."  Three years ago I moved out of a house I was renting and the agent made me pay for a clean up fee after I had actually done some repairs and upgrades on the house since if I would have left it alone it would not have passed the base inspection for rental.  In essence I saved the owner a lot of money on upgrades.. After cleaning out a two story house by myself, paying a large amount to haul off trash, etc.  I left disgusted.  What did the owner immediately do?  He tore down the house and rebuilt.  He had to just dig into my pockets one last time to get a base "sucker" to foot the bill for what he was supposed to do.

You don't have someone clean out a house and then decide to scrap and rebuild, you have to know that well before hand.

I wonder, what was the mental condition of the guys who emptied out all these cans in a closed room.  Huffing comes to my mind.  Guys were probably high as kites when they turned on the hot water.

So just to put my experiences out there:

Apamanshop isn't necessarily the problem, they are a franchise, i.e all the stores that use the Apamanshop name are generally privately owned companies that franchise the brand. To say all Apamanshop are bad is a bit much.

When I rented my apartment in Sendai, I used an Apamanshop franchisee and it was a great experience. I had literally no problems with them, they were extremely helpful, not pushy and didn't try to sell me anything I didn't want or need.

Rental agencies here really are all a massive scam. They are usually all searching off the same central database, and end up costing both the lesser and the lessee a bunch of money for nothing.

Like everywhere else in the developed world, all rental agencies and real-estate companies search off a centralized national database. Sometimes they have ones that are exclusive though.

The real estate agents are even worse when you are moving out.

They will typically charge you close to 2.5x rent for some random damages, some of which already existed.

I was charged absolutely nothing when I moved out because I made sure not to damage anything. Be nice, be friendly when they come to do the inspection, make sure to take any photos of damage that already existed when moving in and present them if they ask for clarification.

And its not 2.5x the rent for some damages, its usually around 1万 if you dent the flooring or stuff. Or you could just fix the thing yourself before they come and see it. Learn some life skills.

The thing to remember is this; the Apaman Network has over 900 stores across the country, add that to the other brands like Able etc. and you'll find that there are thousands of real-estate companies in Japan. They can't all be good. And lets not try and pretend that real-estate in other countries is any better. The US will rip you off even more, same with Britain, same with Canada. That's why reviews and personal experiences are important when selecting a good agent.

A severe case of a lack of commonsense ....

I can't understand why nobody has been instantly arrested following these revelations.

I inspected the property it had not been cleaned *

Similar experience myself. Moving into a rental house, still in this sh%thole BTW, told it would be cleaned inside and out and new tatami. Nothing done on move in day. Eye opener right there. Didn’t care about the tatami so made them sign a letter we won’t pay for new ones. They did send a lone elderly cleaner, probably the dad. Luckily my apartment was across the street, but future wife lived miles away and needed a truck. LOL

Sounds like an insurance scam

Well, if we go in that direction, it could have been an act of lessee revenge gone wrong.

Rental agencies here really are all a massive scam.

When you can't tell the difference between "agents," the guys working in the your local mobile phone shop and the touts in Kabukicho, you know you're in for a good time. The shiny suits, the big hair--they just ooze professionalism.

Reading some of these comments, I can't help but be thrilled about inheriting our home.

The real estate agents are even worse when you are moving out.

They will typically charge you close to 2.5x rent for some random damages, some of which already existed.

Many of them are also linked to the yazuka and send people to threaten you.

Anyone who has ever rented an apartment here will know there are a bunch of BS fees and extra charges they lay on when you move in.

One of those fees is 消毒 or sanitization; this is usually around 30k yen, and they really upsell this to you (its optional, but they wont ever tell you that - but you can just say "dont do that" and they will take it off the quote). Even with a cost conscious wife, we were nearly pressured into this until i looked it up. Any home center sells the exact same products as they use for this, usually just a spraycan you sit in the center of the room. Or at most a spraycan to spray into the nooks and crannies. Apaman went an extra step though, and offered "smell removal and antibacterial" service, for which they charged an extra 15k (this is on top of the sanitization fee).

Not only did they pressure/push this on new lessees, it turns out they didnt even do the stuff they were paid for. I am willing to bet that this is not just them, and that this cover-up extended to the sanitization service as well. Rental agencies here really are all a massive scam. They are usually all searching off the same central database, and end up costing both the lesser and the lessee a bunch of money for nothing.

This accident should have blown the cover off this whole scam of an industry (pun intended), but of course that will be glossed over and by april next year Apaman shop will be pushing for the next round of rental shuffling

Having charged the tenants for deodorizing work on their properties, (which was never carried out) perhaps the real estate agent then needed a photo of a large pile of empty cans in order to show them to the tax office.

In one news article it suggested that the employees were doing this indoors because it was cold outside, but how could they even breathe in there? Talk about giving your life for your company.

The employees tried to empty 120 out of 160 new spray cans for disposal without knowing the gas was flammable,

> Police believe the gas quickly filled up inside the room where doors and windows were closed and eventually triggered the blast, 

Quickly! Call Darwin awards! We have a new set of idiots that are sure to win!

The office had kept unused cans because there were some cases in which it did not carry out the odor removal service for properties despite customers having paid for it, he said.

This is the most important statement in the whole article. Another unscrupulous Japanese real estate company ripping people off for services they paid for. About six years ago I rented an apartment by myself. When I inspected the property it had not been cleaned and the agency, Apaman Shop (by coincidence) assured me it would be cleaned before I moved in a fortnight later. Two weeks later, I arrived with a van full of my stuff to find the apartment had not been touched. There were dust bunnies everywhere and the bathroom was disgusting with a hair ball in the drain big enough to choke a horse. I took photos of everything and called them to complain. This was on a Saturday and they told me they couldn't come to clean the apartment until the following Monday - after I had moved in. I spent the next 48 hours cleaning the whole apartment and my own expenses for cleaning products and time. The company sent me a very nice letter of apology (only). Then, 4 years later when it came time to move out they requested I pay ¥80,000 cleaning fee. I refused to pay it because I had to clean the apartment when I moved in. I had kept all the photos and printed them all out t make a presentation for them, but they persisted I had to pay. I contacted the Japanese equivalent of consumer affairs with the help of a Japanese friend who agreed I should not pay the cleaning fee. They in turn contacted Apaman shop and the fee was removed. I have no doubt they made the previous tenant pay the same ¥80,000 cleaning fee when they moved out, but it was never done. Japanese real estate companies are the biggest rip-off merchants in Japan!

In the past, consumers in Japan were advised to puncture spray cans before discarding them but an increasing number of municipal governments have banned doing so in recent years due to the risks of explosions and inner liquid splashing into the eyes.

If the people were told this was the way to dispose of spray cans then I don't think you can blame the ones who did this for lack of common sense. 

I'm not sure I get the use of the cans and how some think this was a cover up.  Can someone explain that to me.

Sounds like an insurance scam

Totally confused. What do I do with my empty nabe cans?

thepersoniamnow

You think releasing the contents of 100s of Aerosol cans in an densely populated area isn’t stupidity

Well yes I do, that’s why Inagreed with Wayne’s comment.

and that the lying and stealing is hitting the problem spot on? 

Again, yes I do, unless you can come up with a valid reason for the boss(maybe) ordering the disposal of more than a 100 of perfectly good deodorizers.

Was the entire incident about ripping people off

AND covering their a#s

or a massive explosion that blew up buildings and sent 50 people to hospital

Both I reckon

and nearly killed them all?

the fact that no one died, not even in the real estate office, and the flames took 10 minutes to engulf the buildings says you’re sensationalizing a bit.

I empty a few spray cans sometimes before dumping them but never empty them inside house. Spray can is a kinda bomb. 120 cans seem napalm.

People who were initially trapped on the second floor of a Japanese-style pub next to the real estate office said they were only able to escape when the entire second floor collapsed after many of them went to the window-side of the building.

So, it was only due to the glaringly poor building standards and upkeep requirements that everyone in that izakaya were not burned alive. Let that one sink in for a bit.

In the past, consumers in Japan were advised to puncture spray cans before discarding them but an increasing number of municipal governments have banned doing so in recent years due to the risks of explosions and inner liquid splashing into the eyes.

Yet more brilliance and wisdom in Japan's quest for a better environment (or at least appearing to care for the environment). I'm sure the 75 year-old lady who is diligently recycling got this communiqué and will cease puncturing cans right away.

I'm 'sure' (but wouldn't bet a penny on it) that this whole experience will bring about changes in legislation and attitude...

WHO sprays 120 cans empty in a closed room?

Someone who's been ordered to get rid of them by his boss.

After the Kinugawa river in Ibaraki flooded in torrential rain in September 2015 causing untold damage, it was reported in the domestic media that a local "construction company" had been stealing the sand used to shore up the banks. As far as I know no charges were ever brought for criminal negligence, theft, or anything.

Fortunately no-one was killed in Sapporo but a lot of people have had their lives changed forever and will be spending the New Year in hospital, not to mention the destruction of property and loss of livelihood for those affected.

Hopefully the case will be investigated properly and those responsible will be charged with criminal offences. As anyone who has lived here for a while must be aware, public safety is a joke, no matter the endless talk of Anzen Dai-ichi. Cutting corners, penny-pinching, fudging the numbers and bodging it are what usually happens.

A combination of stupidity & culture (sempai kohai) caused this bizarre incident.

Or perhaps is was Darwin at work with too many innocents nearby that thankfully escaped!!

I suppose the tiny amount of gas left over inside each of the hundreds of cans adds up when multiplied by hundreds of cans.

They were new cans. Unused. The company didn't only lie to their customers (fraud again) but also endangered the lives of many others. They should be punished but......of course...

"We want to offer our sincere apologies for causing great trouble to many people," Sato said at a press conference in Sapporo.

and finished. Like it wasnt a big deal. You should've seen the guys face on TV, no remorse.

Also, WHO sprays 120 cans empty in a closed room? That's suicide.

Fizzbit

You think releasing the contents of 100s of Aerosol cans in an densely populated area isn’t stupidity and that the lying and stealing is hitting the problem spot on?

Was the entire incident about ripping people off or a massive explosion that blew up buildings and sent 50 people to hospital and nearly killed them all?

There it is, proof that blind obedience and loyalty to a position in Japan can, not only make you a criminal but also could get you killed! Unable to open their mouth's because they would become the nail, the employees followed their orders, and probably gossiped about it giggled and laughed, lot of teeth sucking going on! Zero common sense applied or even attempted because they were blown up. As I sit here and giggle to myself knowing the whole country is like this, idiots!

If you put to many nails in one board, it'll split!

I just hope the workers don’t get criminally charged, and responsibility falls on the boss who ordered them to do it.

Bosses in Japan sometimes can be stupid and Japanese rigid hierarchy structure just will this matter worse.

I suppose the tiny amount of gas left over inside each of the hundreds of cans adds up when multiplied by hundreds of cans. Why would they keep such cans inside? Yikes! A while back, I inquired with the local trash dept. about what to do with my used spray paint cans and they said just leave them next to the recycling bins and they will pick them up. No need to release the left over gas or paint.

It wasn’t stupidity. They had to empty the cans to cover that they lie and steal from their customers.

I think you hit the nail.

Anyone know what they charge for this temporary “freebreeze” service?

I just hope the workers don’t get criminally charged, and responsibility falls on the boss who ordered them to do it.

Oh, I can just see it coming too...the AC Japan TV ad's

LOL, but not so funny I guess cuz of the disaster that precipitated them. I still get peeved whenever I see a new one.

Oh, I can just see it coming too...the AC Japan TV ad's !

Idiots! I find it hard to believe they no one in the group had no idea that they weren't flammable!

Now the real estate company is going to have to foot the bill! ALL of it!

It wasn’t stupidity. They had to empty the cans to cover that they lie and steal from their customers.

These incredibly stupid people should be prosecuted.

Wow! So this whole massive incident was caused out of stupidity.

Sounds to me like typical blind obedience that is so common here too. I am probably the only person in my company who would say to a senior member that I think something is a bad idea or silly, or suggest another alternative.

Everyone else just nods and marches forward. Emptying 100s of spray cans should envoke a thought or two don’t you think? If not flammable then at least for toxicity and manners and being thoughtful to the neighbors and enviroment.

It is a miracle that scores weren’t killed!