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Sagawa employee caught on YouTube throwing, kicking parcels

52 Comments

Major parcel delivery firm Sagawa Express Co has apologized after a YouTube video showing one of its employees deliberately throwing, kicking and tossing parcels to the ground during delivery, went viral earlier this month, attracting Japanese media attention and public criticism.

The 1:33-minute-long video, taken on Dec 6, shows a male employee wearing the Sagawa uniform, tossing several parcels to the ground a total of four times, kicking them once and throwing a metal luggage carrier four times, as well.

The video is presumed to have been taken from a high-rise apartment building in Tokyo, Japanese media sources reported Tuesday.

Representatives from Sagawa Express issued an official apology, admitting that the man in the video is a full-time employee. Sagawa said the employee "deeply regrets” his actions. He said it was the result of pent-up frustration because nobody was home at the places where he was supposed to deliver the packages that day.

The video attracted criticism among Japanese media and the public after it went live, with all major TV companies broadcasting the video several times and taking to the streets to ask for people’s comments, the majority of whom expressed disappointment and anxiety over how their own items might be handled.

YouTube users also openly criticised the employee, posting comments such as "I won’t be using Sagawa anymore," "So it’s okay to do whatever you want because you’re stressed out? This is unacceptable," and "This man should be fired right away."

On the contrary, some comments sympathised with the man, saying they could "understand where he is coming from."

Sagawa said it is considering punishing the employee.

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52 Comments
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All that and they are considering punishment? I'd like to see what it takes to get fired.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

CONSIDERING?! CONSIDERING?!?!

Anything less than firing that piece of trash is unacceptable.

I am definitely NOT CONSIDERING using sagawa anymore.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

let's not forget the thousands of takyubin delivery-people who work very long hours, in all weathers, take care to carefully deliver how many parcels? a day a week a year, and are unfailingly polite and/or friendly….

11 ( +15 / -4 )

You people don't know how good you have it. In USA we have video of a Kellogg's employee peeing on the corn flakes.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

let's not forget the thousands of takyubin delivery-people who work very long hours, in all weathers, take care to carefully deliver how many parcels? a day a week a year, and are unfailingly polite and/or friendly….

all good, but when the company shows it tolerates this kind of behaviour is simply not acceptable from a user's perspective. nope. nope. nope.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I feel for the guy, though obviously, he needs to be warned about such behaviour - not fired. Have you seen the way delivery drivers in Japan have to work? The unrealistic standards of promptness and efficiency they are supposed perform under?

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Now it's the public's fault, all those people who were out working for a living. How dare they!

Well actually as a side note. You raise a good and valid point. A lot of online shopping sites ( a huge portion of delivered goods) on the ordering page have an option of scheduled delivery time. If people utilised that feature more often, it would make everyone's lives better. The Couriers would be happier and waste less time and get packages to everyone faster. All those people out "making a living" could take ten seconds extra when ordering goods to be delivered when they are actually at home.

That said, no excuse for this muppet to throw a tantrum like that.

Final note...now I see why Amazon are so excessive in their packaging!

5 ( +6 / -1 )

where does it show that Sagawa approves of it?

Heck the guy is queuing at Hello Work now and won't get hired again.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Hey may lose his job, but he might get hired as a striker for his local soccer team. Did you see that kick at 0:45?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

glad he didnt stab anyone too.. not sure about firing but i reckon he needs some anger relieve classes before its too late. tbh, kuroneko is a much better delivery company because instead of cost cutting , they work in much more localised way to a point where you literally get to know the delivery guy. They also follow up delivery trends and will never attempt to deliver you a package when they know 90% of time you wont be home., maybe sagawa should start following this trend .. it would result in much more efficient delivery because almost in all cases i have to call these guys for redelivery and almost never fro kuroneko

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Sagawa has a long history of abusing its workers, but also of letting its workers get away with a remarkable level of malfeasance. A friend who used to work in the office of their main Tokyo dispatch center said incidences of parcel theft, boss-on-driver violence, etc. were rampant. They supposedly cleaned up somewhat after going public, but the sheer volume their drivers/delivery personnel have to deal with (along with Yamato and the rest) as Amazon and others expand same-day delivery service represents a level of pressure even these long-time players in the industry haven't dealt with before. None of which excuses this guy's blow-up, but sometimes I think people sitting at their computers, clicking their online shopping carts don't have any idea of what it takes to get their goods from one point to another.

My local Yamato guy, who mostly delivers by cart from a neighborhood substation, says he lost 20 kg in his first six months of work.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Anything less than firing that piece of trash is unacceptable

This is Japan, and the man is a full time employee. He could have urinated on the packages and not been fired. Pretty much the only way to be fired from a full time job in Japan is to be charged with a crime. Were he working for Fedex, DHL, or UPS in America or another country, he would have been fired on the spot, and any damage to the packages deducted from his pay. In Japan Sagawa will have a hard time doing anything about this employee, if they even refuse to promote him when his turn comes, he can sue (and likely win). The best they can do is take him off the delivery route and put him to work sorting packages, but even that is not easy to do.

This is the main reason why fewer companies hire full time workers, and why worker dispatch companies and temp agencies are so popular.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Ah, doesn't that employee know there are many millions of camera-equipped cellphones out there? Most of which can take video? That's the reason why celebrities have to be much more careful in public in recent years, because one wrong move will result in their actions posted on YouTube and other video streaming services in no time flat

4 ( +4 / -0 )

You are all too harsh - we all break the rules from time to time. I'm sure he'll be punished in some way or oither.

As George Michael said before he died - life is hard enough. we need to show more kindness towards each other.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

This is a grave crime and the dude should be fired, and the company would do well to reimburse fully the people affected by this guy's property destruction. Japan easily has one of the most advanced and high quality domestic logistics industries on Earth so this type of corporate sabotage does massive damage to a company like Sagawa. All it takes is Amazon to cut down on Sagawa deliveries by half to put them in the red and cause big job losses. All because one dude was a little stressed..

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Life is harsh.

Do the same and get it posted on SNS and Good luck for the future as you will need it regardless of where you do it.Btw, similar vids gone viral before.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Our delivery drivers from both Sagawa and Kuroneko are top notch. Express delivery is one industry where Japanese companies perform extremely well.

Still, I am aware of the grueling pressure these drivers are under (as @Stephen Knight noted). This man obviously snapped, but I hope he gets a second chance.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I'd say he's a parcel away from "going takyubin".

Geez, having a bad is one thing but this guy should be fired. Period. Caught on camera to boot.

I've personally had a mix of experiences with Sagawa. Some good, some bad. My biggest complaint about Sagawa is that the majority of delivery guys reek of alcohol from the previous night's bender.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Never had a problem myself within 18yrs most of the staff is top-notch and on time, etc

2 ( +2 / -0 )

He could have hurt someone throwing that cart up the stairs lie that if it went a little farther. He obviously needs a job change. Probably see him on youtube in a year throwing Big Macs on the floor and putting them back in the box.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

My only comment to young people that may see this video is this:

"Study Hard!"

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Behaving like some spoiled Japanese children when they grow up.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

He should be suspended from working and ordered to undertake anger management counselling.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

He already is unemployed with a zero future of getting hired again.

Lesson is DON'T lose your cool as many overseas have learned. Big Brother is watching.

Doubt it look at the recent China airport footage all the bystanders had their keitai out recording it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I give up, all anyone wants to do on these forums is vilify others -

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone ..."

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

I saw a takkyubin man kick and hit the elevator door in my apartment in frustration. I didn't blame him one bit. Do any of you appreciate the kind of time pressure those guys are under? In my opinion delivery companies are little more than burakku kigyo, slavedrivers.

My student's son worked for a parcel delivery firm (not Sagawa, but one of the biggies). According to him one of the biggest problems is that these days, there is rarely anybody at home in the daytime. Where is everybody?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I dont blame him. My Amazon Prime account offers me deliveries within the day, but I also realize what kind of stresses this promise puts on the working grunts.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

This will cost Sagawa big time!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No telling whether this was just a bad day for him, or represents a poor attitude in general. But in our experience all the delivery guys here do a superb job. I don't think he should be fired; maybe this is an eye-opener for those of us receiving the packages that we can try to be faster to the door or something that makes their job a bit easier.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Maybe something personal had happened to him that put him over the edge that day..... we don't know. I remember working temporarily for the Post Office at a railway station in Britain during a pre-Christmas period: there was one full time worker who used to regularly hold mail bags of parcels up in front of himself and kick them into his van. In his case nothing had happened to push him over the edge - it was his normal belligerent state - such people were (are) not uncommon in England. I am very surprised to see a Japanese behaving in such an unconscientious way.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I have just read through the article and watched the video. Yes, the employee has definitely given his company a bad name.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sagawa is CONSIDERING punishment??? That company has been going down the toilet for a while. I always choose other companies when there is an option. Sagawa has never been on time any time I've made a reservation, and the drivers are rude.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The owner of the parcel should sue the company then see if Sagawa will take some action on this employee rather than "considering punishing the employee " !

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Full time employment itself is hard to come by in Japan especially for jobs like these. He probably has been working in this type of job for a while now. Working in all kinds of weather sucks but taking it out on other people's items is wrong.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Were he working for Fedex, DHL, or UPS in America or another country, he would have been fired on the spot, and any damage to the packages deducted from his pay.

Nope. I had two shipments damaged in the US, one an expensive item. both by the same driver. He was never fired, and it took weeks of fighting with UPS to be reimbursed. I was absolutely disgusted with the poor level of service.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This employee is a childish and spiteful 'man'. He should simply be fired. End of.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I suppose it would be annoying if the customer has requested a specific delivery window (like 2-4pm) but isn't there at the time. But so what? Are Sagawa employees punished if deliveries aren't made due to customers being out? One would assume not so this guy is definitely in the wrong job.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I know I had a deal with my Kuroneko deliveryman when I lived at my old apartment to leave packages inside the gas meter compartment if I wasn't home. I think these drivers are on duty until about 8 or 9pm so I wonder if they deliver their day's packages, they could go home early. I would hate too to have to wait around until 8 or 9 to deliver 1 package if I had the chance to get off early.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

DaDude: "I would hate too to have to wait around until 8 or 9 to deliver 1 package if I had the chance to get off early."

If you're on duty, you're on duty, and if you can't wait around until your job requires you to you shouldn't be in that job, plain and simple.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Somehow I didn't get angry on this guy. Somewhat I can understand his frustration.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They supposedly cleaned up somewhat after going public, but the sheer volume their drivers/delivery personnel have to deal with (along with Yamato and the rest) as Amazon and others expand same-day delivery service represents a level of pressure even these long-time players in the industry haven't dealt with before.

Sagawa haven't done business with Amazon for a few years now.. Anyway, if these guys gave me the option to have the package left at my door it'd probably save them a lot of hassle.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sagawa started delivering stuff from Amazon a few years ago and now extremely busy. Tackling and solving this incidence, the system inside the company should be changed somehow; otherwise, same kind of behavior might happen from other workers who are under so much stress. The action he took was really reckless though.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

He's an amateur compared to UPS in the US. Those guys a professional throwers and smashers.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@Lockke wasn't condoning this person's behaviour, but there's so much invective hurled around here, on all sorts of topics, just wanted to offer a little bit of balance… personally i prefer to accentuate the positive, that's all...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Tessa - at work obviously.. i actually find it stuppid to even try to deliver during daytime without a confirmation.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sagawa haven't done business with Amazon for a few years now.

Perhaps not directly, but they still handle shipments for third-party merchants that sell on Amazon (but don't ship from Amazon's own warehouse), the number of which has grown enormously in recent years.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

that means they dont do business with amazon, they have contracts with the merchants.. amazon only has business with post office and kuroneko

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"admitting that the man in the video is a full-time employee" Should that read was a full time employee? when i was a temp river years ago, I could not believe what goes on in these sorting units, stuff being thrown from one van to the next, it was an eye opener! this is not to say that I treated parcels roughly. it does need to be addressed by his boss, is sacking him the best way forward? or is this so rife through out parcel companies its sort of expected? I would say that its common practice though out all of them, baggage handlers at air ports,,, well they have been on you tube showing the lack of care, this is why i never buy a expensive suit case.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

amazon only has business with post office and kuroneko

After Sagawa quit, Amazon started using a company named TMG. Not sure if that is just here in Kansai or not. If you have Amazon Prime, though, your package is pretty much guaranteed to come via Kuroneko.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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