The local government in Japan’s Mie prefecture is preparing to introduce the country’s first local ordinance that penalises abusive behaviour by customers toward workers.
The proposed law aims to protect employees from customer harassment – abbreviated in Japanese to kasuhara – that exceeds normal social boundaries and disrupts their work environment. Acts such as shouting or aggressively demanding apologies would be classified as abuse under the law.
Under the plan, when a business reports a case of abuse, a panel including legal experts will investigate and provide recommendations.
If the behaviour is deemed abusive, the governor can issue an official order prohibiting the offender from repeating such actions. Failure to comply with this order could result in a fine of up to 500,000 Japanese Yen (approximately $3,277).
The ordinance will extend its protections not only to retail and service employees but also to public servants and teachers, who frequently face harassment from the public, according to The Japan Times.
Mie officials intend to present the draft legislation to the prefectural assembly by June next year.
The move comes amid growing concern over kasuhara across Japan.
Earlier this year, Japan’s internal affairs ministry revealed that 35 per cent of local government officials have faced “customer harassment”, including unreasonable demands and rude behaviour from citizens or service users.
This rate was more than triple the 10.8 per cent reported among private-sector employees in a 2023 labour ministry survey.
“Local government officials may be more prone to such harassment than corporate workers because, unlike commercial services, which can be offered selectively to customers, administrative services should be provided fairly and equitably,” an internal affairs ministry official said at the time.
The national survey of over 11,000 Japanese local government officials last year found that harassment mainly came from frustrated residents or those seeking to cause trouble.
About 72 per cent of cases involved persistent questioning, and 66 per cent included aggressive or coercive behaviour. Another 15.7 per cent of officials reported workplace harassment from superiors, with those in their 40s most affected.
In July this year, Japan Today reported that Kuwana City in Mie Prefecture became the first place in Japan to enforce penalties for abusive customers.
Under Kuwana’s new ordinance, which took effect in April along with similar measures in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Gunma, offending customers first receive a warning letter, and repeat offenders can be publicly named and shamed.
The move gained attention after a viral incident at the Osaka World Expo, where a guard was filmed bowing deeply before an angry visitor.
In a ruling under this law, Kuwana authorities deemed it “customer harassment” when a customer forced a courier to kneel and apologise.
Last year in October, Asahi Shimbun reported that across Japan, more local governments were following Tokyo’s lead in tackling customer harassment.
Hokkaido, Saitama, and Mie prefectures, it reported, were drafting similar ordinances, while Akita Prefecture has issued detailed guidelines outlining what constitutes abusive behaviour toward workers.
Fukuoka Prefecture has also introduced a manual for handling harassment cases in administrative offices. Meanwhile, municipalities such as Miyazaki, Kyoto, and Okayama have begun using only first names on staff ID badges to prevent employees from being personally targeted by hostile customers.
