Clients are demanding Japan firms’ workers kneel to apologize, and many comply: survey

TOKYO — Almost 47% of companies in Japan have been subject to client demands that employees kneel on the ground in the “dogeza” style to apologize, and around 70% of those have actually assumed the humiliating pose, a recent survey has found.

The results of the survey conducted online on Sept. 26 and 27 by After Call Navi Co., a Tokyo-based firm that handles phone calls on behalf of companies, revealed some of the firms’ responses to harsh “customer harassment.” After Call Navi contacted the 1,005 company heads who had answered their enterprises had experienced customer harassment to request specific details about the incidents and how they reacted.

When asked if clients had ever demanded employees perform the dogeza pose, 46.8% of respondents answered yes. Of those, 35.7% said they had gotten down on their knees once, and 34.5% responded that they had done so repeatedly. The most common reason for getting down on their knees was “to settle the situation quickly” at 39.1%. An After Call Navi representative commented, “This suggests that companies compromise in many cases just to reduce the time and mental burden.”

In Tokyo, Japan’s first ordinance to prevent customer harassment, which prohibits customers from making unreasonable demands of employees and others, was enacted on Oct. 4. However, how to ensure its effectiveness remains an issue because it is difficult to draw a line between legitimate complaints and customer harassment, and there are no penalties in the ordinance.

Regarding the line between what constitutes customer harassment, 39.9% of respondents to the survey said that they “leave it up to the employee.” Since many companies rely on the judgment and experience of individual employees, the After Call Navi representative stated, “Clear standards and continual training are necessary to ensure consistent responses.”

(Japanese original by Seiho Akimaru, Business News Department)