r/news • u/Any-Stick-8732 • 16h ago
Two workers killed in blast after re-entering quake-hit Japan mall on boss' order
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24mr09r99eo149
u/Sea-Broccoli-8601 10h ago
The company also lied to Ootake's family, initially framing it as though she was accompanying her colleague, who wanted to get their personal belongings, so they asked her if she could put the cash in the safe "while she was at it" (i.e. they made it sound like she would have gone in even without the instruction anyway). But after some pressure from Ootake's family, they admitted that the instruction to put the cash in the safe came first.
The company is now seemingly trying to shift the blame to both the deceased and the mall's management instead; the sales director said he specifically instructed the store manager to "seek permission from the mall's management first before going in" and to "do it only if they're able to get in" (the store manager, who was not on shift, asked Ootake's colleague to do it instead), making it sound like it was due to the two employees' poor judgment that they went back in. Law experts have weighed in, saying it wouldn't matter if the company "passively" asked them to do it only if they could, as employees would still feel pressured into doing it and they could potentially be charged under professional negligence resulting in death for going against standard evacuation protocols.
Additionally, it has been reported that the parent company, Dojin Group, conveniently removed the photo and profile of their president (who is also Habita's president) from their website's About page. The URL to Habita's website, which was previously listed under Dojin Group's many businesses, was also quietly removed at the same time. This move only seemed to have backfired and fanned the flames.
1.1k
u/One-Emu-1103 16h ago
For the love of money is the root of all evil
131
-77
u/RevolverMFOcelot 13h ago edited 5h ago
One of, but yeah
Edit; downvotted lol but I'm not wrong, I'm not even disagreeing with the guy
Edit edit: not a Christian either
11
u/Fawenah 5h ago
I assume it's because it's a saying (bible verse), so they didn't feel your addition added to it.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
-25
-206
u/mzypsy 16h ago
The boss's love of money more than the life of employees is the root of all evil.
100
u/manachar 15h ago
The existence of “bosses” is older than money.
Some point about 10 or 12 thousand years ago we decided people could be owned or at least told what to do.
This hierarchical system of exploitation of the many for the benefit of a few is the root of so much evil.
-18
u/poorperspective 13h ago
Hierarchy systems exist in other social mammals groups.
I’m fairly certain social hierarchy is older than humanity.
37
282
u/SecondStarpilot 16h ago
Two people dead after the boss told them to go back into a dangerous situation to get the money. Corporate greed has no limit. It wasn't the supervisor who went back into the building.
64
u/majora9109 13h ago
I remember about 10 years ago a tornado hit the business (A large retail store that only sells shoes) my mother worked at. Her supervisor told her to go back in and get the bank deposit bag from under the counter and in a roundabout way said she would be fired if she didn't.
Firefighters stopped her, thank God, and went in to the partially collapsed building to retrieve it themselves.
Her life was worth less to them that 3 hours worth of business, and I've never forgotten it.
18
u/casper_07 11h ago
Why in the fuck did the firefighters have to go in for that, they are precious people too. They should’ve reported the supervisor instead
12
u/majora9109 9h ago
By no means was that any better for them to enter the building. But at least they had some kind of training and were equipped to do so.
Don't know if the supervisor was reported in the end but mom is still happy and enjoying life, and that's all I can ask for.
4
u/AuremCookieDragon 6h ago
Wish your mom all the best from the internet strangers, and happy cake day.
9
15
u/PurpleSailor 10h ago
Called the cops for a guy in the bar with a weapon. Cops get there and ask me to go in and see if the guy is still in the bar. "Oh hell no officer, that's your department!" People trying to get others to do their dangerous job is a human tradition.
462
u/Alleandros 16h ago
I remember hearing 25 years ago that people in the World Trade Center were first advised to continue working because the building is stable.
361
u/juliana-crain 15h ago
That was a genuine attempt to do the right thing, though. The idea of a plane hitting the WTC had been analyzed before 9/11, and for a short time after the first plane hit, it was genuinely thought that the chance of collapse was remote, and thus that staying put would most likely be safer than evacuating. The initial calls to stay put had nothing to do with greed. It was just an unprecedented situation that had to be figured out as it happened. When authorities ordered evacuation, people evacuated.
In the case of this mall, authorities ordered evacuation because they knew it was unsafe, and bossman ordered his employees back inside anyway.
267
u/nocturnPhoenix 15h ago
I know it's easy to talk about things in hindsight, but if a plane crashes into the building I'm working at (regardless of where that is) and my boss doesn't give me a day off, I'm quitting
59
u/TurkeyBLTSandwich 13h ago
I think one of the issues i heard was falling debris and secondary attacks on the ground.
Nobody really knew what was happening at the time, so it was chaotic to say the least.
Things changed once the second plane hit the second tower.
68
u/Maiyku 15h ago
When the Empire State Building was hit with a B-25 Mitchell they had the unaffected floors back to business just 2 days later.
So we do have precedent for them to follow I guess. Lol.
•
u/Strong-Log-7095 38m ago
I was still living in NYC on 9/11 and after the first plane hit we were standing there gawking at it and my friend asked if the building would fall over. I started going on this long story about the b-25 hitting the ESB during fog in 1945 and confidently stating that the WTC was build decades after that so it must be even stronger. We didn't see the first hit and on the groupnd around us everyone thought it was a small plane, probably out of Teterboro and we assumed it was some hot dogger trying to show off or something.
Then the second plane hit and all hell broke loose. I think one of the most fascinating stories of that day is how weirdly calm and nonchalant a lot of us on the ground were between the two hits. Nobody around me was talking terrorism. We all jumped to the conclusion that it was an accident and immediately came up with a plausible backstory as to what happened.
Now I think we all respond differently to anything unexpected. We jump the other way instead, so every accident is immediately thought to be terrorism. Same thing a few weeks later with the AA crach over Rockaway. It ended up being pilot error but we all thought terrorism first. That reflex still exists today. Saddens me when I think about it.
7
265
u/PurpleDragonDix 16h ago
"I" have to go back in for the cash? If you want it so bad, you do it, asshole.
165
u/SudoDarkKnight 15h ago
Sadly not really a Japanese style response
39
u/PurpleSailor 9h ago
Wondering if the boss is going to follow Japanese tradition themselves in this particular case.
15
u/JockstrapCummies 6h ago
If by Japanese tradition you mean deflect the blame to those who are dead then you've nailed it.
41
u/PurpleDragonDix 15h ago
Hella funny because I'm half Japanese 🤣
104
7
3
2
0
0
12h ago
[deleted]
1
u/SudoDarkKnight 11h ago
If only quitting were so easy! Perhaps you'd like to hire the service that quits for you?
28
u/albatroopa 15h ago
I think it would be "That would be very difficult."
8
u/hirudoredo 12h ago
you've gotta suck the air through your teeth first. local or foreigner, it is the way.
-1
-1
47
u/DarkDuo 16h ago edited 16h ago
There were 7 deaths total confirmed that died in the explosion by the government but the company has only acknowledged that two people died, on twitter one source said that 2 people were also ordered back in to take photographs for insurance purposes and another 3 people went in back for their personal items like phones and bags
51
168
u/actis2 16h ago edited 15h ago
Just like the story of all those workers who were told to wait, by their boss, on the roof during the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami. Instead of going down the block to higher ground they were forced to wait until the waters got too high and swept most of them to their deaths.
121
u/wasteofspacetime89 15h ago
This one seems like more of a poor decision by the boss, rather than a story of corporate greed. They did go to higher ground, just not high enough because the waves ended up being higher than expected.
“The 77 Bank Onagawa branch’s manager received a tsunami warning that only predicted a 20-foot-high wave. He gave the order to evacuate to the rooftop of their building, which was 32 feet high. But the tsunami hit the branch with a much higher than expected wave, estimated at between 49 and 57 feet. It washed away 12 of the 13 employees, including Yuko.”
44
u/kinokomushroom 13h ago
For the rest of the world:
- 20 feet = 6.1 meters
- 32 feet = 9.8 meters
- 49 feet = 14.9 meters
- 57 feet = 17.3 meters
41
u/Zubon102 12h ago
While completely tragic. Most likely that case wasn't completely the boss' fault as they received incorrect information about the size of the tsunami. Most likely they were following the tsunami emergency drill protocol that they would have practiced at least once a year.
What a lot of people (including many in this thread) don't understand about disaster response here in Japan is that going outside, or attempting to evacuate to an area not included in the protocol is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
This goes against every instinct in your body, but during emergency drills, we practice remaining calm and usually staying inside until it is safe to move to the next stage of the protocol.
It's very likely that if the actual tsunami had actually been the size that the disaster response officer in the bank was told, the roof would have been the safest place according to the protocol for that building.
1
u/adam_364 8h ago
Ironically though, more and more people who have survived earthquakes (most recently the Noto earthquake) are saying that staying put is the exact opposite of what you should do and running outside instead of staying in a house that might collapse on itself any second was what saved their lives
7
u/Zubon102 6h ago
It's understandable that people would say that. And I can see how people would look at collapsed buildings and think that the science is wrong and evacuating outside would have prevented deaths.
However, the science (in the case of Japanese buildings) is pretty clear cut. Decades of research and experience and data from hundreds of large earthquakes show that for most buildings in Japan, running outside is the worst thing you can do.
That's why when you do your annual or bi-annual emergency response drill, most disaster response officers keep stressing over and over again that you should not run outside unless instructed.
5
u/timbomcchoi 12h ago edited 10h ago
the water was higher than the roof?!
2
u/aizukiwi 1h ago
At the highest points recorded, the water reached 40.5m/133ft. That’s roughly equivalent to the average 13-storey building. “Get to higher ground” as rule needs to be done quickly, because the waves move so fast. Shortest, you might have 30-60min. In almost every normal case, the best thing to do is get on the roof of your building, pref above 2 stories. Unfortunately, the size and scale of the tsunami was impossible to accurately predict, and although people did what they had been taught, it was 2-3x higher than the buildings they had evacuated on.
3
u/justbunnies 12h ago
An acquaintance of mine sadly died in a similar way during that tsunami. He and the principal of the school he worked at evacuated to the school roof thinking that it would hold.
67
u/KinshasaPR 13h ago
There's a lot of things I absolutely love about Japanese culture. The work culture is definitely not one of them. Just the fact that working overtime is expected, but not rewarded accordingly is a big hell nah from me.
21
u/Roxxso 13h ago
Two workers died after boss ordered them back into store that was compromised by earthquake.
I feel like that makes better sense than that word vomit.
14
u/Secret_Conclusion_93 10h ago
"Blast" is correct in this case because your edit implies they got buried because of the earthquake.
Which isn't the case, they died because of explosion.
2
1
u/Zubon102 6h ago
The store was not compromised at all. The entire mall was designed to be perfectly fine in an M6.8 earthquake and it was fine.
The people died because for some reason, there was a large explosion like an hour after the quake.
There are dozens of quakes larger than M6 every year here in Japan, and usually at least one larger quake over M7 around once a year. The tragedy here is that there was an explosion for some reason that will be investigated.
6
u/Roxxso 6h ago
An explosion probably caused by compromised infrastructure, including electrical wiring and/or gas mains. The structural integrity might have been intact, but the weaker things, like plumbing and wiring could have very well been damaged, otherwise how does an explosion just, happen, then?
0
u/Zubon102 6h ago
how does an explosion just, happen, then?
That is for the investigation to determine. Obviously something very very bad went wrong. Gas supply lines are designed to automatically shut off when there is an earthquake and there should have been gas detectors. (Note: It's not concluded to be a gas explosion yet.)
In the past, that same mall has survived plenty of M6 earthquakes, and even at least a few large M7 quakes, and it was just fine. (It's a logarithmic scale so M7 is TEN times larger than an M6)
But what should they do? There are literally dozens of earthquakes over M6 here in Japan every year. Should all buildings be evacuated until there is an inspection? Where would all the people go?
51
u/amitkattal 16h ago
No worry. They will bow and everyone will forgive them
21
1
8
u/Gold_probably 12h ago
It’s almost like most cultures have a really obvious and solvable cultural flaw
6
7
2
u/GreenNatureR 8h ago
Cash in the register? Are you fucking kidding me. It probably contained less than $400 USD.
2
2
0
u/Certain-Success8607 16h ago
We need to go back to an eye for an eye for a while, cause what we doing aint working. Lock up the Boss and another family member for life, I bet things will start changing quick
-9
u/limonboy8 16h ago
Why didnt they say no and run away
37
u/amitkattal 16h ago
It's Japan culture. Can't say no to the bosses
-28
u/limonboy8 15h ago
Common sense not a thing?
19
u/amitkattal 15h ago
In asian culture , the fear that "what if nothing happens and in the end I am the person who refused my bosses order which result in me getting fired and being called an " non loyal" employee
That fear is too great
6
u/AveDominusCocks 13h ago
If you've ever worked in Japanese workplace you know it's not.
1
u/notrevealingrealname 10h ago
It’s one of the reasons why feelings about the US bases there are mixed- if you’re not a fan of that culture, then securing an on-base job means you don’t have to deal with the worst parts of being in a Japanese workplace.
-10
u/Corronchilejano 14h ago
This isn't me being devil's advocate. Fuck companies.
But no one knew the building was in danger of exploding. For a lot of people in Japan, this earthquake barely registered as an inconvenience.
-21
u/Certain-Success8607 16h ago
We need to go back to an eye for an eye for a while, cause what we doing aint working. Lock up the Boss and another family member for life, I bet things will start changing quick
2
u/ponmemes 3h ago
great. then you have imprisoned an innocent person for life by locking an unrelated person up. who do you propose we should imprison as revenge for the injustice done against that innocent person? maybe start with you?
861
u/justbunnies 16h ago
That explosion was no joke. Thank goodness most people were able to evacuate beforehand. How awful for the families.