A man who blew the whistle on corruption in Japan in 1975 was transfered by the company to an empty room for the last 17 years and spent many of the past 30 years doing such tasks as weeding the premises and shoveling snow. Read about it here:
He was allowed to go home each night, right? They make it sound like he LIVED in the room for 30 years, like a jail cell!! It isn't right, and why should they be allowed to appeal the decision? It seems to me that they got off lightly looking at what he was asking for and what he got. They don't even have to apologize? What kind of society is that? It doesn't seem like an awful lot, really. To some here, that's like 5 or 6 years pay - to others, its a year's pay. So, did the company do something illegal then? And did they get away with it?
Unfortunately, this isn't an "only in Japan" thing. There's a woman in the NYS government that's being treated pretty much the same way.
Yes, not exactly Japanese-centric occurrence. Similar things happen here. Reminds me of when SOJ during the crazed DC-death days used to send a whole bunch of employees to an empty office suite for the day becasue they couldn't find any work for them. Employees got pissed, complained, SEGA had to pay damages for not giving them work and paying them anyway, heh.
The significance in Japan is that they do this on a smaller, but similar scale. Bitch about your job? Do it not so good? You might get transferred to Lebanon, or some other shitty-to-live place. Of course now people quit more than they did back in the 80's, but still... some can't.
