New poll comes as Tokyo seeks to prevent service worker abuse
Employees in nearly half of companies in Japan have been asked to kneel on the ground in the "dogeza" style to apologise to customers, according to a new survey.
"Dogeza" refers to a traditional Japanese etiquette that involves an individual kneeling directly on the ground and bowing to express a deep apology or desire for a favour from another person.
After Call Navi Co's survey, which polled 1,005 company heads in Japan, revealed that 46.8% of them said clients had demanded their employees perform the dogeza pose.
Among them, 35.7% said employees had performed the pose once, while another 34.5% said employees had done so repeatedly, according to the poll, as reported by The Mainichi.
Nearly 40% of the respondents said they performed the pose to "settle the situation quickly" with a client.
"This suggests that companies compromise in many cases just to reduce the time and mental burden," an After Call Navi representative told The Mainichi.
Customer harassment in Japan
After Call Navi's poll was trying to determine how some firms have been responding to harsh customer harassment, as Tokyo recently introduced a new ordinance to protect service industry staff from abusive consumers.
The new ordinance prohibits customers from making unreasonable demands of employees, but does not carry penalties for violators, The Guardian reported.
Its implementation, set in April, can also face various challenges as it can be hard to determine what is customer harassment and a legitimate concern from a client.
Nearly 40% of respondents in After Call Navi's poll said they will leave it up to the employee to decide what constitutes harassment from customers.
"Clear standards and continual training are necessary to ensure consistent responses," the After Call Navi spokesperson said.
The need for the ordinance comes as a union poll this year found that almost one in two workers in the service sector had been subjected to customer meltdowns. This has resulted in outcomes including verbal abuse, excessive demands leading to violence, as well as doxing on social media, The Guardian reported.
