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TV Asahi Olympic coverage worker injured after attending all-night party

27 Comments

A member of the TV Asahi team covering the Tokyo Olympics was injured in a fall early Monday after attending a party at a karaoke parlor.

According to police and TV Asahi, a group of six employees and four others went to the karaoke parlor in Shibuya after the closing ceremony on Sunday night and drank alcohol there until around 4 a.m. on Monday, Sankei Shimbun reported. As the group was leaving the parlor, a woman trying to leave from a window on the second floor fell and fractured her leg.

TV Asahi said it had prohibited its staff from drinking alcohol at parties or in groups as part of anti-coronavirus restrictions during the state of emergency which Tokyo is under until Aug 31. The network on Tuesday issued a public apology for its staff's behavior.

"It is very regrettable that our employees' actions significantly lacked self-awareness and that they could not exercise voluntary restraint,” TV Asahi said.

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27 Comments
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TV Asahi said it had prohibited its staff from drinking alcohol at parties or in groups as part of anti-coronavirus restrictions during the state of emergency

well that worked.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

LOL - I man come on. Still blaming the Olympics?

-5 ( +10 / -15 )

I wonder how this story got out?

8 ( +10 / -2 )

There are official rules and traditions.

Nomikai is a tradition, and no amount of punishment or rules can prevent it. If you do not go to a nomikai you will be ostracized by your coworkers. If you do not drink heavily you will be looked down upon. There's simply nothing TV Asahi could do, it could happen to any company.

You can threaten to fine people 100M yen and prison time (of course, this would be illegal) but still have zero effect in stopping nomikais.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

TV Asahi really should be held accountable for hiring staff unable to hold their alcohol and manage to use stairs without causing a major international incident.

As a result, I will refrain from watching TV Asahi.... or rather, not start watching....

4 ( +8 / -4 )

At what point is it something about the workplace and something about a group of friends who happen to got to the same workplace?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Nomikai is a tradition, and no amount of punishment or rules can prevent it. If you do not go to a nomikai you will be ostracized by your coworkers. If you do not drink heavily you will be looked down upon. There's simply nothing TV Asahi could do, it could happen to any company.

That in-house party tradition is already obsolete in many workplaces, and the pandemic measures further help hesitant employees be able to decline nomikai attendance. Many young also don't drink much, don't get drunk heavily (until falling from the second floor :))

Though the Asahi network is said to be liberal, its organizational culture may be classic and semi-militaristic :)

6 ( +7 / -1 )

What this article fails to mention is that the group was not leaving, just the woman who was heavily intoxicated. Because it was 4am and the entrance on the first floor was closed, this woman decided to exit the building from the window on the second floor, traversing over the billboard just outside the window, and fell to the ground, breaking her leg as a result. The group that was still enjoying their karaoke and alcohol didn't realize that the woman fell and injured herself until the police came in to ask if she was one of them. TV Asahi was known to be critical of the Japanese government for hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics during this pandemic, all the while covering the games extensively. What a joke.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Come on,partypoopers!Let's have suggestions for the karaoke playlist.

I'm going with Tears for Fears' "Head over Heels" as the last song.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Worked on the staff at the LA '84 Olympics, and my friend and I got separated at the post-closing ceremonies party. Since I'd driven, I walked to our parking spot and he never showed, so I drove home - but we were from OC, and someone noticed a guy wearing typical OC clothing looking lost and drove him home. It was the first time I realized the great difference between LA and OC clothing (urban v. surf).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Is this karma for breaking the rules?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I'm going with Tears for Fears' "Head over Heels" as the last song.

or "Fallin" by Alicia Keys.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

"According to police and TV Asahi, a group of six employees and four others went to the karaoke parlor in Shibuya after the closing ceremony on Sunday night and drank alcohol there until around 4 a.m. on Monday, Sankei Shimbun reported. As the group was leaving the parlor, a woman trying to leave from a window on the second floor fell and fractured her leg."

So... she ignored the pandemic safety measures by going to karaoke, ignored the safety measures by drinking in a group, ignored the safety measures by partying all night, and then tried to exit via a window?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The old, 'trying to leave from a second story window' trick! Was she that drunk or that desperate to get out or both?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So what?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Most places here closes at midnight, some are open until the early morning hours. And there are bars in 野毛 which are open until 10 or 11 am.

Your choice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As the group was leaving the parlor, a woman trying to leave from a window on the second floor fell and fractured her leg.

No doubt half-cut. I personally choose to leave via the doors on the first floor (ground floor to Europeans). But that's just me.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

She tried to take her pants off over her head? Who could possibly be drunk enough to do that? Must be a lie.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I thought karaoke places were closed. I thought alcohol was banned from being served after 8 pm. Oh right, TIJ. The quasi-rules are only quasi-enforced and the government's on-again off-again approach towards fighting the pandemic has most people not even quasi-paying attention anymore.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Nothing good happen to you in Tokyo after 2 am in the morning,or any city in the world ,if you missed the last train especially

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I thought karaoke places were closed. I thought alcohol was banned from being served after 8 pm.

The ones that I know open at 8pm.

Banned by whom? You mean requested not to serve. Sure there are thousands of places who open anyways. Moonshiners. And there are thousands of places that open officially, saying that they don't comply with the rules.

Now some of you might say "They must comply with the rules" - I say no. And a former alumni who now works as a lawyer in Sapporo agrees with me when he says that such laws will be held unconstitutional by the courts. Hence, nobody got fined so far (Cause the government would lose their face if a court officially collects their "rules")

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

What's embarrassing for this left-leaning TV broadcasting company is that, just like any other leftist journalists in Japan, it has been critical of Olympics Games under the pandemic, warning against the international gathering!

Look at the Asahi Shimbun's coverages of the Games, which are totally schizophrenic between praising and denouncing the games at the same time.

How stressful it could be for the employees of these companies whose official position was anti-Olympics Games to do reporting of the events, which turned out to be nothing but positive and joyful! It was supposed to be a gigantic disaster, but it was not.

Be sympathetic to them, folks!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Nomikai is a tradition, and no amount of punishment or rules can prevent it. If you do not go to a nomikai you will be ostracized by your coworkers. If you do not drink heavily you will be looked down upon. There's simply nothing TV Asahi could do, it could happen to any company.

This is Showa era thinking, today things are totally different and even back then there was no requirement to drink, and you weren't looked down on either. Sure most did, but no "requirements", that is more urban legend BS as well.

What happens at a nomikai stays at a nomikai, but not today. That has changed too!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Is TV Asahi the channel with that show that has a panel of "comedians" and "talents" sitting together on one side of the stage, yelling and ehhh-ing at the host and co-host on the other side of the stage?

Or that one show where a similar group tastes different dishes, and yells "oishiiiii" and "amai" after every dish?

Or, maybe the show where almost the same group watch YouTube videos.

Oh wait. That's all the commercial channels.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

As the group was leaving the parlor, a woman trying to leave from a window on the second floor fell and fractured her leg.

I dont get it. She wanted to climb out of the window? Why??

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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