r/japan • u/frozenpandaman [愛知県] • 1d ago

Odd safety order quietly accepted before fatal Tobu Railway accident

https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/16930825
56 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

41

u/JMEEKER86 [大阪府] 1d ago

So the cause was an incompetent micromanager butted in and took charge of the operation even though they weren't part of its planning and then the workers were too scared to speak up due to seniority when the incompetent manager made obviously bad decisions.

3

u/imaginary_num6er 11h ago

Incompetent manager probably is off the hook too

2

u/JMEEKER86 [大阪府] 5h ago

Well, they certainly won't see any further consequences seeing as they died.

9

u/GingerPrince72 23h ago

Japan still Japaning.

1

u/passionatebigbaby 11h ago

Must protect culture.

0

u/ScootOverMakeRoom 5h ago

This kind of thing happens in literally every country. Bad/unnecessary middle management is a hallmark of business in general, not Japan.

2

u/GingerPrince72 3h ago

It’s the fear of speaking out to superiors that’s the Japan thing.

-1

u/ScootOverMakeRoom 3h ago

It's not and it's really telling that you think it is.

1

u/GingerPrince72 2h ago

So Japan is just like everywhere else and there isn’t a culture of unquestioning deference to seniors , is that really your claim?

-1

u/ScootOverMakeRoom 2h ago edited 1h ago

Japan's business culture is not unique, no. It's literally modeled on Western business culture. You have to be genuinely dense to think that Japan is the only country in the world where subordinates are afraid of the consequences of speaking out against their bosses. Read literally any tech industry book. Read literally any finance industry book. Gerontocracy is not unique to Japan. It's a problem in literally every Western country. It's a problem in South Korea. It's a problem in China. It's a problem in Africa. It's a problem in South America. It's a problem in every advanced and developing economy.

I beg you to live some life.

Edit: Why do so many people have Japan Uniqueness Derangement Syndrome?

9

u/Safe_Print7223 10h ago

“I thought I would get scolded if I spoke up, so I entered without saying anything,” one worker said.

Another said: “We had always walked on top of the platform before, but I refrained from saying anything because I thought it would cause trouble if I brought it up.”

Seriously…. This will be the end of this shitty country.

2

u/ragequitteroffureh 6h ago

Fucking hell, the details in that article made my arse cheeks clench.

So, these poor guys basically got shredded between the platform and the train. Including the guy that got them all killed, apparently.

I don't grasp the part about the platform though. Do they mean that this stupid manager fella told them to crawl into the space underneath the platform? Some do have a big space under there, some are just rat toilets.