When Beat Takeshi does this in his movies, he looks stupid not funny to me.

Spiteful slave drivers strike subjugated staff

Brutal bosses -- mauling managers who readily smack around staff -- are
rapidly escalating in number across Japan, according to Spa! (12/6).

Where workplace counseling centers only received 6,627 complaints about
workplace violence inflicted by superiors in 2001, that number jumped
to a whopping 14,665 by last year, according to the Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare.

What's more, many of the cases appear to have been sparked by the most
trifling of incidents, like the Asahi newspaper reporter beaten up by
his boss because they had differing opinions about Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where
Japan's dead, including its war criminals, are enshrined.

Some office onslaughts set off by piddling matters can prove deadly --
a Fukui man died in December last year after his boss beat and kicked
him. A Nagoya man is still recovering from the November 2004 attack his
transport company boss unleashed on him because he refused to accompany
him for an after-work beer.

Ari Sugano of NPO Labor Consultation Center says there're two types of
bosses likely to get rough -- those who act on impulse and the others
who typically use physical force to keep their staff under control.

"Bosses whose violence arises suddenly are normally average types of
people that nobody would ever suspect of raising their fists. They are
often under enormous amounts of pressure themselves and don't have the
ease of mind to relax, their anger can be triggered easily and they
take out their frustrations on workers," Sugano tells Spa! "As for the
other types, they're the kinds who are likely to keep staff locked up
in car trunks, have beaten any number of people and whose presence
should raise questions about the quality of a company that employs
them."

English textbook salesman Koji Kurihara knows exactly the type of
people Sugano is talking about. His boss beat him up -- for smiling.
Kurihara says his boss asked him if he was listening while he was being
told off. Kurihara says the wild glare in his boss's eyes and bulging
veins on his temples indicated the situation was a little hairy, so he
gave a broad smile while answering "Yes." Next thing he knew, he was
picking himself up off the ground after having copped a wicked right to
the jaw.

"There was this sudden, searing pain and I had to look around a bit to
find my glasses. I screamed out to my boss that he didn't need to hit
me. Fortunately, some co-workers heard and raced in to save me,"
Kurihara tells Spa! adding that the cooled-down boss and a company
executive later kowtowed before him to offer an apology made easier to
accept by the accompaniment of 100,000 yen cash to cover "medical
expenses" -- and probably a lawsuit.

Masashi Toda went through a similar experience, when his superior
turned on him for booking a company night-out at a dingy hovel of a
restaurant.

"They entrusted the reservations for the party to me. On the night of
the party, my boss and I passed by in a corridor before the boss
suddenly turned around and slugged me," Toda tells Spa! "I had no idea
what was happening until he dragged me off into a separate room,
started ranting at me for booking such a horrible place and then gave
me a vicious punch in the guts." (By Ryann Connell)

December 1, 2005

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