Japan’s Workers Face Frequent Phone Harassment

Harassing Phone Calls Interfere with Work

So-called “customer harassment” in the form of repeated complaints and other types of behavior from customers targeting staff has become a social issue in Japan. The Nagoya-based company Tobila Systems, which provides services to block nuisance calls, conducted a survey in early October of 967 people who have experienced customer harassment over the phone. The most common type of problem was “abusive language and insults,” experienced by 53.1% of those surveyed, followed by “excessive demands” and “exceedingly long calls.”

Among local government employees surveyed, 54.3% experienced customer harassment at least once a week, which is more than double the 24.4% reported by private-sector employees. Notably, 18.8% of those employed by a local government experienced customer harassment every day, which is roughly five times higher than the 3.3% in the private sector. This shows how much customer harassment is interfering with the work of local authorities.

At local governments, customer harassment tends to occur during times of change, such as the revelation of a scandal or inappropriate behavior, the announcement of a new governmental policy, or revisions to systems or ordinances. In contrast, at private companies, harassment can be triggered at any time, rather than being related to a particular period, so that employees are exposed to it on a regular basis in their daily work.

Data Sources

• Phone harassment survey (Japanese) by Tobila Systems.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)