Civil servant suing Fukuoka for one yen over employee drinking ban

[yuiyoshida]

TOKYO —

In Japan, work comes first. For most people, their professional life takes priority over their family, romantic, and personal lives, with long hours and short vacations being the norm.

Given that environment, it’s no surprise that after their shift ends, many people want to stop off at a bar for a cold beer to wash the taste of work out of their mouth. For a one-month period, though, that wasn’t an option for civil servants in Fukuoka City, due to a temporary ban on drinking outside their homes. Obviously, this wasn’t a popular rule among workers, and one man was so upset he’s now suing the city, asking for a single yen in compensation.

When Soichiro Takashima spent his first day in the mayor’s chair in 2010, Fukuoka was less than five years removed from a tragic drunk-driving accident that had claimed the lives of three young children. On August 25, 2006, an inebriated city employee driving on the Umi no Nakamichi Ohashi Bridge rear-ended the car in front of him, sending it plummeting into Hakata Bay. While the two adult occupants survived, their children did not. Citizens were further outraged to hear that the city employee had tried to flee the scene, before being caught and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Wanting to regain the public trust after this scandal, Takashima couldn’t have been pleased when, in two separate incidents in early 2012, a member of the Fukuoka fire department and the vice principal of an elementary school within the city were caught driving under the influence. The livid mayor declared, “To put a stop to the climate of drinking and improper behavior emanating from City Hall, shock therapy is necessary.”

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/civil-servant-suing-fukuoka-for-one-yen-over-employee-drinking-ban

[djean111]

1. Cut down on drunk driving, not drinking.

When I was working in Tokyo, in the 90's, going back to my hotel on the subway after, say, 8:30, was an adventure - lots of people who had been drinking. That being said, I never met a belligerent or rude inebriated person the whole time I was there. The closest thing to that was at a Christmas party in a restaurant when one guy, after a few, explained to me that Japanese men did not look down on Japanese women, they just didn't think they should have to work so hard (referring to my 15-18 hour days), and felt bad, but appreciated, that I worked so hard. Also explained that the notion that all Japanese women were meek and submissive was pretty damned hilarious.
I would go back and work there in a heartbeat.