Kumamoto police have announced the punishment of a sergeant in his 50s for incidents of “power harassment” against several lower ranking officers. As a result his pay will be docked 10 percent for three months.
The incidents took place between September of 2015 and October of last year and included cases of the sergeant hitting officers on top of their helmet with an LED light baton, like the kind used to guide traffic at night. Other complaints included forcing subordinates to eat spicy instant noodles.
At one point an officer in their 20s required several days off to recover from complaints of poor health. In a survey conducted last October the sergeant admitted to his deed, saying “The intention was to guide them. I went too far.”
Readers of the news weren’t overly concerned with the level of harassment, as prepacked Japanese instant noodles (or any Japanese food for that matter) tends to not be all that spicy in the grand scheme of things.
However, everyone was mystified by what lesson the sergeant thought he was teaching through his piquant peppers.
“What does eating spicy noodles teach someone?”
“Make sergeant eat Atsuzu Oden!”
“I wonder if it was [Peyang] Spicy Max. That stuff’s delicious.”
“Spicy food feels painful, but it doesn’t really hurt your body.”
“Sounds like that one guy was agonizing on the toilet for a few days.”
“Spicy noodles don’t hurt people. People hurt people.”
“I wouldn’t expect the police to have power harassment, but there you go.”
“I wonder what he does to the subordinates he likes?”
“Aren’t the police supposed to be tougher than this?”
“Eating five cups of Nakamoto Spicy Miso Tanmen would be cruel and unusual punishment.”
Sometimes power harassment boils down to a lack of self-awareness. While some might respond positively to the sergeant’s actions, many others clearly do not, and effective leadership is really about seeing and understanding these differences in people.
Sources: Jiji.com, Golden Times
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2018/03/26/kumamoto-police-sergeant-reprimanded-for-making-officers-eat-spicy-instant-noodles/
18 Comments
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Dango bong
Hate to say it but this kind of behavior is rampant in my company, I can only imagine how rampant it is in "macho" jobs like sumo, police and construction where the "be a man" mantra is amplified.
At drinking parties the lower guys constantly get harassed by being made to drink-till-you-puke, eat gross things, get their pants pulled down and on and on. It is almost daily.
Yubaru
Lol!
So, you guys go drinking almost daily? And here I thought the bubble ended over 20 years ago?
MarkX
Reading the comments by many people, you can see how they don't understand what power harassment is! Regardless if the noodles are spicy or not, being forced to eat them against your will is harassment. It is one person telling, showing that they are in charge and can make you do anything. I fear with these type of comments it will be a cold day in hell before people wake up to what is really going on in many companies.
Dango bong
yes
Michael Jackson
10% for 3, months what a joke, he won't even notice the difference in his paycheck so how is that going to affect his behavior?
kurisupisu
Much more worrying is the physical assault!
Using a baton to the head sounds like assault-precisely what the police should be preventing!
Are the cops in Japan low level?
I have to assume they are...
Toshihiro
Being born and raised from an Asian country, most ossan still tend to practice the still macho and brutish way of manliness which, if you look at it today is out of place in modern society - but we're talking about Japan here so...
seadog538
Those complaining Officers are obviously "koshinuke" Where is their 'Yamato damashii".
dcog9065
Well that’s definitely a new punishment. His other transgressions must have been quite bad to have his salary docked
mmwkdw
Who paid for it ?
garypen
"Power harassment" is just a fancy way of saying "bullying".
That is what these bosses, coaches, teachers, etc are doing. They are bullies who take pleasure from bullying their subordinates, athletes, students, etc.
Senpai culture.
Wakarimasen
Satsu should do like the sumo association and resolve to "take the violence out of policing".
roughneck
Imagine, the weakling, who nags about a ramen, is chosen to protect you, because you are punishing the one who can actually fight back.
Yuko Maeda
I love the "being forced to ___ against their will" comments. Learn to stand up for yourself, say no, and stick by it. It's always the sheep of the world who feel they were forced to do something against their will. These situations are not black ops in an Eastern Bloc CIA sanctioned site where 5 interrogators hold you down and funnel spicy noodles down your throat. SAY NO.
Mocheake
Sarge is not too good at using his own noodle, is he?
shogun36
hmmm, they have enough time to force spicy noodles to be consumed and hit subordinates with led batons....... shouldn't they be out patrolling the streets or something constructive instead?