Having a gym near your workplace is handy. If you’re an early riser, you can probably sneak in a workout before clocking in at the office, and as long as you don’t get hung up with overtime, hitting the gym on your way home from work is an option too.
However, the convenience of a nearby gym proved to be too great a temptation for Kazushi Kono, a 55-year-old civil servant in the city of Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. Well, technically he’s now a former civil servant, as he was fired late last month for skipping out of work in the middle of his shift to go the gym.
Outright axing someone just for that might seem like overkill, but this wasn’t a one-time transgression. Following an anonymous tip in August that Kono was routinely ditching work, the city launched an investigation and found that between April of 2021 and November of 2024, Kono had snuck off to the gym a total of 633 times. Assuming 20 working days in a month, that would be 633 unauthorized trips in 820 days, meaning that on any given day he was working, there was nearly an 80 percent chance that he’d be headed to the gym during working hours.
The investigation was also able to determine the total time Kono had spent at the gym while ditching work, right down to the minute: 658 hours, 36 minutes, making his sessions an average of approximately one hour each.
This might have you thinking that Kono is some sort of extreme fitness maniac, who simply can’t make it through a workday without pumping iron. Actually, though, Kono, who was a member of the city’s Parks Department, went to the gym to stretch and soak in its hot spring-water bath, saying that it helped alleviate numbness in his arms which he suffers from.
Nevertheless, the city didn’t take kindly to Kono building a paid near-daily rest and recuperation break into his work schedule without permission, and he admits the error of his conduct, saying “I overdid it, and I regret that.” He’s still been sacked, though, and four of his supervisors have also been officially reprimanded for not noticing his absences.
The city is also insisting that Kono pay back 1.768 million yen, the calculated amount of money he was paid for working during the 658 hours, 36 minutes he was actually at the gym, so while his gym sessions may have made his arms feel better, it looks like they’re going to hurt him in his wallet.
Sources: NHK, Yomiuri Shimbun
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2025/01/12/i-overdid-it-man-in-japan-fired-after-ditching-work-633-times-to-go-to-the-gym/
29 Comments
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Jay
Finally, someone who understands the true meaning of "working out" over just "working." Priorities in order: biceps first, spreadsheets later.
This man is an inspirational legend for not letting unemployment get in the way of his the only thing that really matters - health.
Ken
Jesus Christ? Did you even read the article before typing?
sakurasuki
How come he can do that? In Japan even to go home right after work hour finish is not that possible. Need to do overtime afterward.
Oh this explain lot.
Asiaman7
More disturbing is the calculated hourly pay of a 55-year-old civil servant: ¥2,700.
Ah_so
And where he is, he probably won't be able to get a job that pays even that much again.
GillislowTier
The amount I’ve seen guys like this in Japan while working at the ward offices is pretty rampant haha. Maybe not the gym but missing for an hour or two, turns out they are at the combini parking lot or in a secluded room on their phone. Once you have time bound tenure no one cares
Mr Kipling
Kazushi Kono.... we salute you! Too bad you got caught, had you just sat in your office doing nothing like many, you would have been fine.
TorafusuTorasan
@Jay--does bathing and stretching give us massively ripped biceps? Only in dreamland.
Nemuitanuki
Can't he argue that he went during break time?
GBR48
The Japanese Ferris Bueller is a 55 year old civil servant.
If you don't notice that your employee is AWOL for that long, you are definitely overstaffed. Here's a thought, Japan: How about employing fewer people and paying each of them more. At a stroke, an increase in wages and a reduction in the general staff shortage.
zulander
Not a word about his productivity. Says a lot about these kind of institutions.....
owzer
You're half right. Employ fewer.
kohakuebisu
If sitting in the bath is "going to the gym" then I do it every night, sometimes while drinking a beer.
In what should be no surprise to anyone, the same shiyakusho employs (probably loads of) non seishain workers on 210,000 a month for full time hours. I bet they wouldn't get away with sloping off for months on end.
https://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/shisei/saiyojoho/rinji/jimu/R6jimuhojo.html
u_s__reamer
He lost his office job, but kept his sanity? Godspeed to him on his new life journey.
Chico3
I'm sure if it weren't for Japan's culture on lifetime employment, he would have been fired a long time ago.
Deo Gratias
This situation in Ehime speaks to the necessity -- or lack thereof -- of most civil servant jobs.
This guy was gone for that many hours because he was at the gym -- and it seems no one even noticed, not even his supervisors.
That tells me that this guy's taxpayer-funded position probably isn't even necessary. He's been fired -- and instead of replacing him, maybe they should just eliminate his position. Seems like it's not even needed.
grc
No doubt he returned to the office and worked assiduously until ten at night like a good salariman
Geeter Mckluskie
There could be a civil servant job or two opening up in California. This guy's commitment to his duty would fall right in line with their governance.
justasking
This would be ridiculous if there's not unpaid overtime "work", called "company service" that is expected of every employee.
Baradzed
What is the big deal if the work is done anyways? I do that too and its great: gyms and pools are less crowded during the day.
iron man
More disturbing is the calculated hourly pay of a 55-year-old civil servant: ¥2,700.
per hour? or per month! anybody check what the gym fees were per hour? 55yrs old enough wise enough to use the gym as a distraction for... nah comments. I have a huge respect for underpaid secretaries. Fired to ensure clean images!
Chico3
It seems like this guy has long lost relations to Ferris Buller or has watch Ferris Buller's Day Off one too many times.
TokyoLiving
I love you freak Japan..
Please never change..
リッチ
He should be the role model and not fired but promoted. Working overtime is ridiculous and an hour who cares. And did he take a lunch also or was he using his lunch. Seems like the normal fat city worker (which often they are) don’t want to take part in making anyone’s life better let alone a coworker. He should get a go fund me and let the city be totally embarrassed on how much money he would get for free.
Daisaku
All of the civil servants should have followed suit keeping their minds and bodies healthy.
Antiquesaving
That doesn't surprise me.
I lived in a house with a city park right behind the house
Less than a metre from the house was a park on the other side of the fence.
Every day the maintenance guys would come, sit in their truck up against the fence, more often than not with the engine running and sleep for 3 hours, then get out pick up a few pieces of trash missing most of it, then leave around 16:00
I finally complained to the city primarily because the fumes from the engine meant we couldn't open any windows at the back of the house.
This only ended when cameras were installed in the park, suddenly the guys would arrive, start cleaning the toilets, then pick up the trash etc... clip some tree branches and we're in and out in less than an hour.
Antiquesaving
I like how so few here read the article before commenting.
Anyone ever see a city or government office open or with anyone in it after closing time? No right!?
Getting anything done by a city/prefecture/national worker after hours is only in a fantasy movie or TV show, the only exception are teachers and that crazy system needs to change.
And remember, those saying good for him blah blah blah... Remember it is your taxes paying when government employees do these things.
Norm
You love Japanese employees stealing time (=money) from their employers?
Yes, that is freak.
3RENSHO
"Ditching work"? How does a worker 'ditch' their work? If their work involved digging actual ditches, would they still be 'ditching'? When did 'shirking' change meaning to ditching?