Expulsion Room

(upbeat music)

We have an update to a
previous story and it was

about the two friends
and one showed up dead.

So we had the two guys and they had
bonded 30 some years ago over baseball.

They both love baseball.

And all signs pointed to murder.

You had one guy was basically in
control of the other guy’s income.

He had access to his bank account.

The police made him a person of
interest when he after the death

of the first person that he went
to the bank and started taking

trying to take money
out of the bank account.

He was also the primary receiver of
life insurance should the person die.

So all signs pointed to murder.

I mean, this is it.

They’ve been friends for
a long time but here’s the

guy who had some money
and there’s an opportunity.

They’re down by the water.

And it seems like he pushed him in.

Now, one thing that was in the news reports

that I read that I didn’t say
because it wasn’t clarified.

They talked about him having weights
with him, the guy who was in the water,

but they didn’t actually say the weights
were in a backpack weighing him down.

So because they didn’t say it,

I didn’t feel actually
comfortable putting that out there

as a fact, but it turns
out in a follow-up story,

the reason for his drowning,
he had a backpack full of weights

on and that’s what weighed
him down so that he drowned.

Now, it turns out there’s a
very interesting change in this.

So the friend was arrested
for suspected murder.

The update has been that the murder
has been downgraded to assisted suicide.

This is suicide is still illegal in Japan,

but it’s not exactly the
same caliber as murder.

So that gives us a big hint into
what was actually probably happening.

So the prosecution has looked at all
the facts, talked to the suspect and gone,

we think this is a case of
assisted suicide, not murder.

Suicide is still illegal in Japan.

You’re not allowed to
help people commit suicide.

And it was the life insurance
claim that brought it all

because the guy requested
like how do I find out,

how do I get the money from this
life insurance claim after my friend dies.

So while no further
information has been given out,

the fact that it has been changed from a
murder case to an assisted suicide case

actually gives us a
whole lot of information

that we can kind of see what
probably was actually going on

in the time, if again, the
facts turn out to be accurate.

A clothing store, Shinamura has
released a curvy branded hoodie.

So it’s got sort of, it’s a pink hoodie
with Kirby’s eyes and mouth on the front.

He’s not a very complex character like,

you know, Kirby was
actually a placeholder for

a character that was
never actually developed.

So they’re like, we’ve
been working with this blob

for so long, we kind of have
fallen in love with this blob.

They put the blob game out and everyone
falls in love with the blob as well.

Everybody loves Kirby.

So of course, a branded
shirt makes a lot of sense.

You have a hoodie and
it’s got Kirby’s face in

the front and it says
Kirby across the top except.

The Japanese pronunciation
of Kirby is a lot more like copy

and copy if you were
going to spell it in English,

you would put K-A-R-B-Y, or maybe
a double-eye or something like that.

And so if you were a
Japanese person working

in a Japanese company and you
made the very Japanese mistake,

a whole bunch of other
Japanese people might

not notice the mistake
and release the hoodie.

So the release of this hoodie
actually said, K-A-R-B-Y

across the top, which is
technically a misspelling

because all the games
have been released in English,

all the games have K-A-R-B-Y written
on it so it should match those games.

The company will offer
refunds, but now the way I’m

looking at it, this is a
limited edition misprint.

So if you get one of
these, I would hold onto it.

I would keep it for a while
and then sell it a couple of years

down the line when it’s
impossible to get this kind

of thing, maybe make a
couple extra dollars off it.

It’s been on sale since September 25th.

So it hasn’t been that long
before someone actually noticed

a mistake or someone actually brought the
mistake up to the attention of the company.

The company was like,
we’re going to recall those,

we’re going to refund
anyone who wants to refund.

They didn’t just replace it.

They offered a refund not a replacement.

I guess you just go buy the correct
spelling of the hoodie if you still want it.

I would still keep the one that says copy.

I like these kind of things with
little mistakes and weird stuff in it.

It makes it more
unique and I think that

uniqueness is something
that I like in the world.

So if you have one of
those copy hoodies, I would

recommend not returning
it, not getting a refund.

So keep that, ’cause that’s
unique and individual and cool.

(upbeat music)

Overtureism is a story we’ve talked about
multiple times on the ancient New Japan

because it’s become a
major news story in Japan.

People are kind of upset
that foreigners come over

and they don’t sort of abide by
Japanese rules and sort of social norms.

I think this is understandable because
when you come to another culture,

you’re sort of expected to
fall in line with that culture

to a degree, but also you’re
here to have a good time.

You’re having fun, maybe you get excited.

Maybe this is the kind of place.

You know, you just wanna live that life.

Usually it’s drinking or just
behaving badly or being really rude.

It’s really clear.

This one, the behavior itself
doesn’t bother you as much.

It’s where the lady did it.

So this is now a national
news, a former gymnast.

I decided to show off
some skills for Instagram.

This is apparently something she does.

She travels around and she does athletic
feats for her followers on Instagram.

She has 140,000 followers, making sure
that everything she does gets out there.

So people are gonna see what she does.

This may be fall into
the like, maybe video it,

and then check with some
people before you post it.

That actually might be a good idea.

She was visiting a shrine, and then leading
up to shrines, there are tortoise gates.

These are the very classic
Japanese painted red gates.

Often they get smaller, so it
looks like it sort of zooms into this,

like middle distance kind
of thing, which I really like.

I really like the tortoise
gates, to be honest.

It’s one of those things.

It’s very Japanese, it’s very iconic.

They’re cool.

I like them.

She’s decided to show off some of her
skills, some of her calisthenics, I guess.

So she jumps up and starts doing,

what I would call controlled
chin-ups on the tortoise gate.

She, there’s a song going.

She pulls herself up about halfway.

She moved to the left,
she moved to the right.

She moves her legs around, and
then she comes down very slowly.

Clearly a very physically capable woman
with abilities, but doing it at a shrine,

which is a religious site,
could be seen as disrespectful.

I knew that.

I would consider myself
fairly ignorant of most things.

If I’m being really honest, like
when it comes to religion and stuff,

I don’t know that much,
but I know don’t pee on stuff,

don’t go to religious
sites and start working out.

It’s just one of those things.

It’s just seen as disrespectful
by the people who do take it.

Like maybe I don’t take religion seriously.

Other people do.

Therefore, I’m not gonna do
anything in a religious setting,

just so I don’t piss off the
people who do take it seriously,

’cause they are taking it seriously,
’cause they’re there at that time.

She says she did not realize she was at
a sacred place and acted without thinking.

Now, I can promise you
half of that statement is true.

She did, she did act without thinking.

She acted without
thinking because this is

something she has done,
this has become her schtick.

She goes to places
and does physical things.

So for her going to any place is a platform

for her to do a physical thing
and show off a bit for her followers.

She knew this was a sacred place.

She knew this was a shrine.

She knew these gates
were part of the shrine.

I mean, that’s why you go there.

I’m not getting particularly angry about
it, but this part of the apology is a lie.

You went, I mean, you looked up on
the internet or you looked up some maps

or you tried to find
some stuff in the area.

You were looking at for tourist locations
and it said something’s something shrine

and the tortoise gates
lead up to the shrine.

So she knew where she was
going that day and what it was.

I just, I cannot believe she did not
know she was going to a shrine that day.

I can’t believe that she didn’t
know that a shrine is sacred ground.

So I don’t mind the apology.

I think that’s fine.

She did something, she said, you know what?

I was disrespectful, I was
caught up in the moment.

I was excited about what I was doing.

This is kind of my thing.

I didn’t really connect the two things in
the moment and I did it without thinking.

100% kind of believe that.

I apologize for it.

I take responsibility for it.

I would be okay with that.

The I didn’t know smacks
of a little bullshit to me.

Because she has a fairly
large following 140,000 followers

on Instagram, I mean, she
might have other platforms

where she does the same
thing, like TikTok and stuff.

There was, of course,
a lot of Japanese people

found out about it,
probably got spread out.

It was in Japan, so it’s gonna get
spread to a bunch of Japanese users.

There was immediate backlash with people
telling her not to come back to Japan again.

So she has done this thing, gone back home,

probably posted it from
home or at the end of her trip.

Oh, gone back home and
now people are like sending

her messages, like, please
never come back to Japan.

That’s, I mean, from a Japanese person,

that’s like one step
down from a death threat.

They don’t do a lot of
death threats in Japan.

When they do, it’s actually illegal.

That’s something else we should talk about.

I mean, we’ve talked about in the past,

but be very careful
about giving death threats.

But just saying, like, hey, we
don’t appreciate what you did.

Don’t come back to Japan.

It still hurts.

Having a whole country turn around
and go like, we don’t want you here.

Please don’t visit us again.

That’s gotta be a lot.

So she posted her apology.

I think her apology again.

I, when you throw some
bullshit into your apology, it’s hard

to take your whole, it sort
of ruins your whole apology.

You gotta just own up to what you did.

Be honest about it and then take
responsibility for it and apologize.

And then we could
maybe accept your apology.

Maybe I still don’t want you
to come back and visit Japan.

Going to a shrine and saying, you
didn’t know this was a favorite place.

I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it.

Bendy namco.

It’s a big Japanese video
game coming to do other stuff.

Video games is kind of what they’re
famous for in the world at large.

They have been accused of using.

Oidashi Bea.

And these are called any
English would be expulsion rooms.

And this is a very Japanese
way to handle a problem.

So they want to reduce their staff numbers.

And maybe they don’t want to pay severance

to those staff members
that they want to get rid of.

So they do this Japanese thing.

And I’ve heard about this,
but I’ve never seen it done.

My company apparently doesn’t
do it, which is a good thing.

But I’d heard about it from other
people that it happens in other companies.

So I was wondering if it’s real.

And so this is an accusation
of sorts because this

is sort of an underhanded
way to handle the problem.

What they do is put you in a room
and they don’t give you any work.

And now at first, that
sounds like a dream job.

You’re getting paid to do nothing.

But the idea is to give
you nothing to the point

where you get so frustrated with
doing nothing, you actually quit.

And if you quit, you don’t
get your severance package.

That kind of thing.

So it’s not them letting you go.

It’s them frustrating you
to the point where you quit.

Bandai Namco is being accused
of wanting to cut its workforce.

So it’s sending workers to these floors.

These floors, these rooms have just a
room, maybe a desk and nothing to do.

They might have a computer
on it because something

that says later, so it
means it has a computer.

It has a computer.

See, this is it, you could mess around.

But if you’re messing around,
you’re messing around on work time.

So if you’re not doing
what you’re supposed to do,

if you’re messing around on work
time, maybe then they could fire you.

So if I start just like reading Reddit all
day, every day, and they go, well, now,

we can accuse you of just messing
around all day and not doing the task.

But you say, but you haven’t given me
a task, but your task was to do nothing.

Yeah, they see, it’s stuck in a loop.

They’re trying to create a situation

where they can get rid
of you, and it’s your fault.

200 people so far have
been sent to these rooms.

100 have quit.

So it’s been relatively successful.

If they want to get rid of all
200 of these people, they’re

had a 50% success rate,
and they’ve really just started.

I mean, they don’t actually say in the story
when they started because this is like,

the people of quit are now making
the accusation of the company.

So how long do they
actually stay in those

rooms before they
actually ended up quitting?

The idea is to pressure
them to leave voluntarily,

and this is used as ammunition
to cut severance when you leave.

Some people use the
time to look for another job.

So guess, they don’t have to necessarily
give you a computer to look for another job.

I guess you could do that on your phone.

Phones are pretty powerful nowadays.

So yeah, I can see them
putting you at a room

with a desk and you
start using your phone.

But then again, using your
personal device on company time,

that could be a fireable offense if
they set it up that way in the beginning.

So it leads to a whole bunch of questions.

Bandai Namco did release a statement.

Our decisions to discontinue games

are based on comprehensive
assessments of the situation.

Some employees may need
to wait a certain amount of time

before they are assigned
their next project.

So this is what they’re saying.

Like these people, they’re
not being put in these rooms

so they don’t do anything
so they get so bored they quit.

They’re just being put in a holding pattern

until we give them the next exciting
project, the next big step in their career.

We’re not doing anything wrong.

We are setting these people up for success

because we want to put the
right person in the right place.

But we do move forward with
assignments as new projects emerge.

There is no organization like
Odashibaya at Bandai Namco Studios

designed to pressure
people to leave voluntarily.

And it’s almost like, if
you say it that blatantly,

you’re more likely doing
the thing you’re not doing.

That’s actually the thing
for me for the statement.

The statement is so
clearly like, no, no, no.

We’re not doing the very specific thing.

It makes me think you are absolutely doing

the very specific thing
you’re being accused of.

(upbeat music) Train nerds.

Train nerds are a big thing.

I said a conversation was gray last week.

We didn’t actually put it into the podcast,
talking about some of the bad behavior

of these incredibly enthusiastic
train fans that live in Japan.

So I’ve always found like, Otaku,
there’s kind of like two versions of it.

There’s Otaku, I’m a big fan of something.

I love it, you know, that’s it.

Then there is Otaku, the
person who is obsessive,

who the person who,
this is their entire life.

They don’t care about anything else.

A lot of these train
fans fall into that second

category where they’re
obsessive over it.

And this is a subset
of that called todi tetsu.

And these are the guys who love
to take pictures of train specifically.

So their hobby is
taking pictures of trains.

They’re gonna go to special
locations to try to get a

picture of, let’s say, a
train coming out of a tunnel.

There have set up spots
where you can get a picture

of the entire shinkansen in
one shot, that kind of stuff.

They pay thousands of dollars for cameras.

They’re learning techniques.

I mean, these are people
who, their whole life,

outside of work, maybe,
maybe not even work because

they’re so obsessed over
it, is taking pictures of trains.

On October 15th, 100 people
crowded around a single train crossing.

So you gotta imagine there’s
the road, there’s the train crossing.

Those little sort of single
barrier arm things come down.

These people were all
over the train tracks.

And when the arms came down, which
you’re supposed to be standing behind those

for your own safety, a whole bunch
of people still were on the inside of it.

And they had train staff like pushing
them out and getting really angry at them

and shouting at them because again,
we don’t want you to get hit by the train.

The, we’re crowding to
see a very specific train.

Now, this is a black train.

So all the trains in
Japan, basically they’re

all kind of white or red
or something like that.

This is a entirely painted black train.

And the reason is a special
train is because when a

train derails, this is the
rescue train that goes out

to get it to pull it either
back on or push it on.

I don’t know what it actually does,

but it is the train that
goes out to deal with derails.

Now this has a very rare thing in Japan.

We have train accidents.

We have earthquakes and stuff, but 99% of
the time that just means the train stops.

So let’s say a car gets stuck on the road.

The train will hit the car ’cause
the trains don’t stop very fast.

It won’t derail.

You get accidents of other sorts.

The trains stop, they
don’t necessarily derail.

You have an earthquake.

The train will stop.

It won’t derail.

There’s a lot of safety measures in place
to make sure that trains don’t derail.

So a train derailing and therefore the need

and the use of the black train, the
rescue train, is an incredibly rare thing.

So for these guys who the whole
lives are taking pictures of trains,

the opportunity to take this
single picture is like a lifetime event.

The reason this train
was traveling this route

on that night wasn’t because
there was an accident of any sort.

It was because they
were changing train yards.

So it was sitting in one train yard.

They were moving it to another train yard

just for, I guess, to
make it more accessible.

Should there be an accident in the future?

There is a similar train.

The shinkansen, the
bullet train, they’re all white.

I mean, they have blue accents and stuff.

But basically, all the
bullet trains are white.

And then there’s one yellow one.

And this is called Dr. Yellow.

And this is the shinkansen, the bullet
train, that sort of checks the track.

So it goes down, it goes at those speeds.

It has no passengers.

It just got, it has computers
in it, measuring like

how much the vibrations
are, how fast are we going?

Are there any things we should check?

Are there any tracks that need to be fixed?

It basically is checking
the health of the tracks

at the shinkansen runs on, which is why
the shinkansen itself is so safe to run.

Again, very similarly, they don’t
publish the schedule of this train.

They don’t make it clear
when this thing is going out.

So seeing Dr. Yellow is a very special
event for these massive tote tetsu.

But they also are breaking
the rules of the sort of train

etiquette by standing on the
tracks, going inside the barrier

when it comes down and getting
shouted out by stations staff.

The stations staff knew
this was going to happen.

And there have been like scuffles.

So like they push each other,
they try to get the best picture

when someone gets in the way
they get really angry at them.

They actually had a guy
right in front of a fairly rare

train that comes around
this one very specific curve.

And he was in the shot and
they all started shouting at him

that he should pay them
money for ruining the photograph.

That, I mean, he didn’t know.

He was just riding his bicycle
home from work that day.

And he was basically one
guy versus like 100 nerds.

I mean, still quite scary for being honest.

It’s an issue because sooner or later

someone’s going to hurt, but I
actually had a second thought

because they want to
see this train so badly.

What if a nerd took it so far?

They actually tried to
create a train decoupling.

So they would know where
the decoupling happened

so they could actually wait for
the train, the rescue train to come.

If that is not actually happened,

I was like, that would be an awesome
police manga episode in the future.

A 35-year-old man was arrested
for stealing 150 kilograms of onions.

I don’t know why that caught my attention.

There’s actually been a spake recently.

I guess this is a harvest
season of people stealing

like peaches and fruit and
vegetables from farmers.

Last week, I didn’t actually do the story.

Was like 150 kilograms or 200 kilograms
of rice was stolen from like a warehouse?

Like, this is worth a lot of money.

So 150 kilograms of onions
was worth 100,000 yen.

Now, not a massive,
massive amount of money,

but I guess if you were going to just go
resell it, I mean, it’s pure profit for you.

So that’s just 100,000 yen in the bank.

The man who’s been
accused claims his innocence

and that he has no
recollection of the crime.

So I guess if you didn’t commit the crime,

you would have no
recollection of the crime.

So that’s actually pretty
good stance to take.

He became a suspect after the police
looked at security footage near the field.

So we’ve now hit a point in modern society

where stealing stuff from
what would look like an

empty field means you’re
still caught on camera.

So that to me is one of
the biggest inhibitors to crime

is there is so much, so many
cameras in the world now.

So many crimes are
solved by police just going,

well, here’s this guy
that’s following him home

and then they go to his house and
pick him up and go, did you do this?

Nine times out of 10, they
actually confessed in Japan.

But this guy, at least
he’s holding his ground,

he’s saying, no, I
didn’t steal any onions.

I don’t know why I found it funny,
but he’s also an onion farmer.

So this is an onion
farmer who went to another

onion farmer’s fields and stole
his onions and gets brought it back.

It would be much easier
to hide the evidence though.

So like, if I just really turn going to
like, if I wanted to hide dead bodies,

it’d be good if I worked in like a mortuary
’cause it’d be dead bodies everywhere.

It makes way more sense with onions.

Onions are much easier
to hide and much harder

to identify, I guess,
than a human body.

My brain should not have gone
there is what I’m feeling right now.

Several onion thefts have
happened over the last couple weeks.

A man in his 20s was arrested last month.

So this is not like an isolated incident.

There are a lot of people
out there stealing the onions,

which led me to the second
part where if he actually gets

convicted and arrested of the
theft of 150 kilograms of onions

and he’s in jail and he’s in
with like a hearted Yakuza killer.

Although, although Yakuza stories recently,

it’s all like 50 year old men stealing
Rolex watches and getting caught right away.

My image of the Yakuza having now covered
a bunch of Yakuza news is gone way down.

Like, they’re just not as
scary as they used to be.

Especially ’cause they all
seem to be really old now.

Like, I’m 50 something.

There are all 50 somethings.

I’m like, it’s not as impressive.

You need that like, vigor of youth to really
create your site, your crime syndicate.

Why no idea what I’m talking about now?

Yakuza are getting old.

I think that’s what I’m saying.

They need some new blood to make them
scary again because it just gets to a point

where it’s now just a bunch of old
men sitting around trying to steal cars.

And it’s just not the
same as the organized

crime of our image from
the movies and stuff.

But you’re in prison
and you’re in with your

cellmates and it’s
like, what did you do?

I killed a guy with my bare hands
’cause he talked to me the wrong way.

What would you do?

I stole a laundry, kilograms of onions.

I don’t know, I immediately went into like,

almost like a Midwestern
accent there for a bit.

I just, I don’t think
you’re gonna be getting

a lot of clout in prison if
onion theft is your crime.

A man is using a toilet and train station.

Perfect start to any story.

You hear someone outside sort of
like tapping and he gets pissed off.

It’s like, I was trying to rush me, man.

I need to relax to have my functions at
their best, I need, you know, personal time.

Why are you rushing me?

So pisses them off.

So he finishes up, he
goes outside, he sees the

guy who’s in the bathroom,
he’s, you know what?

This is a train station.

I’m gonna kick that guy in the waist.

I guess he’s just not very good kicking.

Like, ’cause if you’re gonna kick someone,

the waist is maybe
the least effective place.

Probably kicked him just
in the side and he is waist.

If I’m thinking about
it more logically now.

In a train station though, that’s a problem

because if you hit someone and they fall
into the tracks, that is attempted murder.

So that’s actually a whole different issue.

It didn’t go that far.

The guy who got kicked
wasn’t actually injured.

Then, after the guy
kicked him in the waist,

he ran away and he hit
in the bathroom again.

So we’re not dealing with
the like bravest criminal

or his passion and fury overtook him for a
moment and he kicked the guy in the waist.

And then reality setting is
like a whole bunch of people

just saw me kick a
random person in the waist.

I’m gonna go run away and hide now.

So this guy’s not, his
thought processes aren’t great.

Turns out the reason the man was
clicking was because he was blind.

This was the multi-use toilet.

He was blind.

He was using his cane to
find his way into the bathroom.

So he wasn’t actually
trying to rush that guy.

He was just trying to find the bathroom.

Maybe perfectly fine with waiting.

Maybe he didn’t even
need to use that toilet stall.

We don’t know what was happening there.

We do know that a blind man was in
using the like more accessible toilet.

This guy misinterpreted.

It got pissed off.

Went and kicked a blind guy on
the platform and was arrested for it.

When he was arrested, he said, I heard the
clicking and thought he was pressuring me.

Oh, no, no.

I heard the clicking and I
thought he was rushing me.

I got angry and kicked him.

I didn’t know he was blind.

Now I’m gonna go ahead and put it out there

that him being blind is not the
important part of that statement.

You shouldn’t be kicking anybody.

Like blind or not blind.

Him being blind makes it slightly worse
because he can’t really protect himself.

And he was completely innocent
in the first part of the accusation.

So he’s saying like, if I
had known he was blind,

I wouldn’t have gotten so
pissed off, which I don’t believe.

I think he would have just maybe not kicked
him, but he still would have been angry.

So there’s certainly some
emotional issues going on there.

How did they find him in
the bathroom so quickly?

Well, it turns out security footage.

So related to my previous story, you’re
not going anywhere we’re not being videoed.

So this guy, the police were
like, let’s look at this video footage.

They see the guy, kick the blind guy.

They see him run away.

They follow the cameras
back to where he went.

Well, he’s gone into the bathroom.

They go into the bathroom.

He’s arrested immediately.

So again, an engineer’s
Japan is all about

the crimes and I don’t
know what are we about.

We’re not about the crimes.

We’re about not committing crimes.

I just want people to think,
no, I got no conclusion.

Don’t kick blind people, I mean, given.

Don’t commit crimes.

I’ve done that one a million times.

You’re being watched.

That’s it.

We have our lady who decided to do
chin-ups on a 20-gate and gotten trouble.

She’s being watched.

She posted on the internet.

We got a guy stealing onions.

He was in an empty field,
still was on security cameras.

We have a guy kicking
people in the train station.

You’re on camera.

You’re on camera all the time.

You’re gonna get caught.

You gotta realize you have to, I
don’t care about morals anymore.

You’re gonna get caught
’cause you’re being filmed.

(upbeat music)

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