Why power harassment frequently occurs in Japan

Shamefully, several kinds of harassments are spread in Japan, I feel. Japanese tend to be exclusive, in general. Many people dislike touching other culture. Sexual harassment is focused just recently after discrimination against women candidates to a medical school was revealed. Expecting mothers hardly continue their job because work security is not guaranteed in many cases. There are lots of other examples to describe the difficulty to adapt yourself to Japan culture.

Regarding power harassment, I believe there are many unseen cases. According to the article below, one-third of employees experienced power harassment in their three years. I think this result is correctly representing the current situation. Some workers take an action against harassment. But many of them will not be saved because they are deemed as a difficult person by any companies. Therefore, many workers, especially young people, decide to quit the job, otherwise, continue to obey their terrible boss.

The Japan Times: Reports of power harassment in workplaces continue rising

In most cases, the bosses are not conscious of the agony of the employee who feels harassed. Therefore, conducting a seminar about harassment is almost useless. Modifying the consciousness of the bosses is necessary to reduce the risk of power harassment.

In my opinion, the lack of coaching skills is one of the dominant causes of power harassment. When you have to train a subordinate who is not smart, or simply dull, you have to change the way to teach him. It takes more time to train a non-skilled worker. You have to tell the essential things repeatedly. You have to let him understand why he cannot do correctly. However, many bosses omit the time to get the subordinate learned by himself. In reality, many small companies cannot spend the time to train rookies. As a result, the boss scolds him instead of guiding him. Repetitive scolding is no more than harassment. But the boss cannot distinguish scolding from training.

Japanese tend to think spiritually rather than logically. Many bosses, especially in elders, believe making efforts with great pain will solute any problems. I do not deny the importance of effort. But, telling your subordinate to make more efforts is no more coaching. People without understanding the fact are always at risk of taking harassment.