Nara-Beamte waren nach zahlreichen Anrufen wegen Misshandlung geliebter Hirsche erschöpft

First of all, if there is truly a precedent for deer abuse, shame on the people doing it (JUST LEAVE THE ANIMALS THE GUCK ALONE!). If it’s foreigners, I can only say that they are the reason we can’t have nice things.

Now, to the article itself. First of all, I dislike that the image alone is already biased, as it’s showing only foreigners with a deer and not actually what this article is about. Put in a stock photo of a Japanese call center employee or a phone or something like that, as the article is about customers harassing the city office employees.

Next the idea that the city office is using the automated guiding messages is helpful for the employees, but it also makes it easier for people to reach a human to talk to, when it’s actually important (I’m thinking about elderly people here who can’t deal easily with the modern systems and need help).

Last but not least, we all know nothing about the harassment is going to change, the article is in English, so less Japanese people will see it. Additionally Japan has been like this (customers harassing employees) for many years now (to the point, that we see posters warning of harassment towards employees now), so I doubt anything will change.

Finally, this is the big drawback of making a culture full of prejudice, entitlement because of seniority and not experience or skill, failing education (in terms of people knowing not much about other countries besides what they see in the media) and the ever rising expectations in terms of the service culture.

Kudos to the ones who notice it could have heavy mental effects on the employees, but sadly in Japan mental problems are still widely ignored and not properly acknowledged by companies and society.