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Q: *Polite* Japanese employee lets 160,000 foreign tourists into park without paying entry fees.
Read the story, and see what you think.
"A Japanese park attendant let 160,000 foreign tourists in for free because he was too scared to charge them the entrance fee"
An errant employee has cost one of Tokyo's public gardens more than $US220,000 in entrance fees.
An attendant at the city's Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden was reportedly too scared to ask foreign visitors for payment.
The elderly man responsible stopped charging tourists the 200 yen ($US1.80) entrance fee in April 2014 after a bad experience and continued doing so until December 2016.
Auditors estimated that about 160,000 people had been allowed to enter the garden without paying, costing the park 25 million yen ($US223,000) in revenue.
The worker has since left his position and offered to return 300,000 yen of his retirement bonus, The Guardian reported.
One of Tokyo's most popular public gardens has lost a lot of money because of one errant employee, it was reported on Tuesday.
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden charges a meager 200 yen ($US1.80) for entry to its grounds, one of the best places to see the country's famous cherry blossoms in spring.
According to the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, which manages the park, Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, is considered to be one of the most important gardens from the Meiji era.
However, many tourists have managed to dodge the small fee thanks to one of the park's attendants, who was reportedly too scared to ask foreigners to pay up.
The former employee, who is reportedly in his early 70s, failed to charge international visitors the entrance fees for about two and a half years between 2014 and 2017, according to The Guardian.
Auditors estimated that about 160,000 people had been allowed to enter the garden without paying, costing the park 25 million yen ($US223,000) in revenue.
"I don't speak any other languages, and I got scared when a foreigner began yelling at me a long time ago," the employee told ministry officials, according to SoraNews24.
Bizarrely, the attendant had been issuing tickets to foreigners, which had the price of entrance written on them, but not asking for money. He would then ask a colleague with access to the park's database to cancel the sales.
The Guardian reported that in December 2016 the employee was exposed by a colleague who saw him acting strangely when handing out tickets to tourists. He has since retired from his position, been docked 10% of his salary, and offered to return 300,000 yen of his retirement bonus.
Japanese people are very polite, BUT, this park attendant is not a good example of it. He abused the 'polite Japanese' stereotype to commit some very insulting subliminal racism against foreigners. He failed to do his job, didn't treat foreign visitors as human beings who must pay their entry fee, but rather as wild animals to be avoided. All because of a single bad encounter. None of the foreign guests to the park wanted to be treated differently, and the avoided entry fees come at a severe cost of lowering foreigners' standing in the eyes of the Japanese public. It's cute that the missed revenues were so clearly calculated, but it's now impossible to say how many foreigners would have actually visited the park, had the admission fee been enforced normally. The word POLITE is absolutely the wrong word to describe the attendant's passive-aggressive racist policy, when he chose to single out foreign visitors. When foreigners are subjected to unequal treatment, media is too easily tricked into positive reporting, only because the avoided fees appear beneficial on the surface. This man spread hostility and racism towards foreigners, all under the guise of letting them into the park for free.
Stiggs:
Yep, polite is the wrong word here. Maybe apathetic, cowardly or derelict in his duties would be a better way to describe him. Then again, when someone is in a minimum wage type job the motivation to give a shit about it isn't very high.
I personally wouldn't go as far calling what he did "spreading racism and hostility" or "passive aggressive".
I think he was just a timid old guy who didn't think the job was worth the unpleasantness or loss of face of being yelled at in a language he didn't understand,so he did what he did.
Krouts are polite, too ... 
German nurse admits killing 100 people in country's worst ...Oct 30, 2018 · BERLIN — Niels Hoegel, a 41-year old former German nurse, confessed on Tuesday to one of Europe's most gruesome mass murder cases since World War II and admitted to killing 100 patients ...https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/10/30/thats-way-it-is-german-n...
icnif77:
Once, I was in Chinese park with my student and her parents. Entrance fee was 100 RMB, which pop cover it for all of us.
It was some hill (I can't recall the name, now ...) in Hebei, close to city of Yuyang.
We walked slowly up-hill and brazillion people with us.
A bit before we reached the top, father decided we should return back to the valley. All good, except we had to walk down facing other people walking up.
Few months later, I went to the same park with another student alone. After we reached the top, we had some half an hour sit-down and tried to return to the valley ... butT.., all exits from the top of the hill were closed for some (Chinese) reason.
Only available way down was by the gondola for 250 RMB per person. 
and father of the first student knew that!
I wanted to file complain to UN Council! 
coineineagh:
Nasty. Just goes to show that European medical staff are too well protected from accountability when something goes wrong. Not asking important questions that need to be asked, can lead to these kinds of serial killers having their hands free. There's something to be said for China, where doctors are too afraid of consequences to make direct diagnosis, and refer to widespread medical tests.
haha,,, yesterday the manager knocked 8.8% of my restaurant bill! I couldn't figure if it was from I'm a good customer,,, or is it some kinda holiday? Either way, I'll take it.
Why?
