<figure id="attachment_435575" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435575" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7b5a2c43"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/843dfd97bbbfec590f8d75c311108c7b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435575" class="wp-caption-text">Ako A&#8217;s uniform provided by the area manager &#8220;as a memorial&#8221; (from the August 21 and 28, &#8217;15 issues).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will introduce a story from the August 21-28, 2003 issue that appeared 10 years ago <span class="strongInContent">: &#8220;An assistant manager with a wife and child visited a Saizeriya employee at 2 a.m. and forced her to have sex with him several times, forcing a female regular employee in her 20s to commit suicide</span>.</p>
<p> Ms. Ako (in her 20s), a regular employee (non-regular employee) of the major restaurant chain &#8220;Saizeriya,&#8221; committed suicide in December &#8217;14. On July 21, 2003, her parents filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against the company and Mr. X, a former employee and assistant manager, seeking approximately 100 million yen in damages for her death. According to the lawsuit, Ms. Ako&#8217;s death was caused by Mr. X&#8217;s sexual harassment. FRIDAY interviewed a male relative (all ages and titles are current at the time of the interview. The descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Repeated and persistent sexual harassment</span></h3>
<p> Mr. B, a relative who has loved Ako since she was a child, told &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; the following.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;I think Ako was killed by Saizeriya. The assistant manager, taking advantage of his superior position, repeatedly sexually harassed her and forced her into a physical relationship that culminated in her suicide.</span></p>
<p> Ms. Ako began working at a Saizeriya restaurant in the suburbs of Tokyo in April 2001, after graduating from high school and entering a medical school. When she started working part-time, she said she enjoyed working at Saizeriya. Ms. Ako, who had experience working part-time at a convenience store and was charming, dropped out of technical school after the female manager at the time recommended that she become a regular employee. Since a regular employee can be promoted to a full-time employee if he or she achieves a higher grade, Ms. Ako worked even harder.</p>
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<p> However, in December of the same year, the female manager was transferred to another restaurant, and the wheels began to go haywire: Mr. X, the assistant manager who had been assigned to supervise Ms. Ako, began to sexually harass her relentlessly.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He would try to sit on top of Ms. Ako, who was working squatting next to the cash register, hug her from behind without warning, and touch her ears, hair, and feet. &#8230;&#8230; In addition to physical contact, he also took advantage of his position as assistant manager to write messages on her pay stubs and in her work diary (training notebook).</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> [Joon] I like you. （I&#8217;m looking out for you.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> There were 20 to 30 staff members at the store where Ako worked, and X was sexually harassing Ako right in front of them. When the female manager was transferred, the male manager who came from another store also asked, &#8216;Have you already had sex with the assistant manager?&#8217; The workplace had become a needle in a haystack.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Finally, she had sexual intercourse with Mr. X..."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">&#8221;I&#8217;ve fallen to the bottom &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> Although Ms. Ako had discussed these acts of sexual harassment with her mother and friends, Mr. X was unable to take a strong stance because he was in a leadership role and was involved in Ms. Ako&#8217;s promotion.&#8217; Even after Mr. X became manager of another store in August 2002, he publicly stated, <span class="strongInContent">&#8216;I will always look after Ako.</span> He found out the address of Ms. A&#8217;s apartment where she lived alone from company documents and repeatedly forced her to perform sexual acts on him, including sudden visits at 2:00 a.m.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> In mid-September 2002, in despair over Mr. X&#8217;s continued sexual harassment even after being transferred to another store, Ms. Ako finally had sexual relations with him. At that time, she confided to a close friend, &#8220;I have fallen to the bottom &#8230;&#8230;.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. X continued to try to have sexual intercourse with her, and when his request was rejected, he pressed her, &#8220;Let&#8217;s die together! At the end of 2002, Ms. Ako chose to commit suicide by hanging herself in her room.</span></p>
<p> When Mr. X met with Ms. Ako&#8217;s parents in February 2003, he apologized with a pale face, but refused to admit his fault, saying that he and Ms. Ako were friends and that it did not constitute sexual harassment (even if they had engaged in sexual acts).</p>
<p> The PR department of Saizeriya made the following comment to &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; at the time.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;We pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased and extend our deepest condolences to the family. We understand that a lawsuit has been filed against the company, but we have not received the complaint at this stage. We will examine the contents of the complaint carefully, discuss it with the lawyer in charge, and take appropriate measures in the course of the legal proceedings.</span></p>
<p> At Ms. A&#8217;s funeral, an apron from Saizeriya, a favorite restaurant, was placed in her coffin.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Ms. Ako&#39;s diary submitted to the court"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Days of Sexual Harassment Recorded in Diary</span></h3>
<p> At the trial, the family presented a diary kept on Ms. A&#8217;s computer as evidence of sexual harassment. The diary contained a detailed record of daily events, including her feelings of sexual harassment and verbal abuse, such as when she wrote that Mr. X&#8217;s body touching during work was so severe that she <span class="strongInContent">felt a &#8220;strange sense of distance&#8221; from him</span>. On the other hand, there were also statements in which she seemed to respect Mr. X as a mentor.</p>
<p> Eventually, when Ms. A started living alone, Mr. X began to come over every day. In the diary kept after the sexual relationship began, he often wrote that <span class="strongInContent">he wanted to end the relationship.</span> The surviving family members believe that Ms. Ako, who had become mentally unstable due to her conflicted affair with Mr. X, became upset when Mr. X <span class="strongInContent">said</span> to her <span class="strongInContent">, &#8220;Let&#8217;s die together!</span> which triggered her suicide.</p>
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<p> On the other hand, Mr. X&#8217;s claim was completely different. He admitted to the affair, but said that the contents of the diary <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;seemed to be a completely different person from the way he was acting in front of her,&#8221; and</span> that Ms. Ako was more aggressive in the relationship and pressed him to choose between her family and himself. Mr. X claimed that by telling Mr. Ako that he would choose his family, he had driven her to her death.</p>
<p> Mr. X submitted as evidence his LINE communication with Ms. A. The manager and his co-workers at the time were also involved in the case. The manager and his colleagues at the time also testified that they were unaware of the affair and had never thought their relationship was suspicious.</p>
<p> In March 2006, a settlement was reached between Saizeriya and the bereaved family, and Mr. X was to pay condolence money to the family. Saizeriya commented, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;We have been continuing the lawsuit in order to recover from the social and economic damage caused by the lawsuit and the media reports, and the terms of the settlement were almost in line with our wishes.</span></p>
<p> The line that Mr. X used as evidence is believed to have had a significant impact on the course of the trial. To what extent did the contents of the line reflect Ms. A&#8217;s true intentions?</p>
<p> Since Ms. A is dead, there is no way to know what was in her heart.</p>

<figure id="attachment_435576" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435576" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5d404791"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/2a531ec6c520c2a535df77d2cf5bb22d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435576" class="wp-caption-text"> Mr. B, interviewed by this magazine, with a handwritten message from Mr. X attached to Ms. Ako&#8217;s pay stub and training notebook (from the August 21 and 28, 2003 issues).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_435578" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435578" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b2830c2e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/b4e7a8e6f3f91aefef98729a7baaf9af.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435578" class="wp-caption-text"> Saizeriya headquarters (from the August 21 and 28, 2003 issues)</figcaption></figure>


 Aida En (1st photo), Kazuhiko Nakamura (2nd photo), Takeo Yuzuna (3rd photo)

 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what this magazine reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In 2003, parents sued a major restaurant chain, Saizeriya, claiming that their daughter committed suicide due to sexual harassment by her boss. What was the nature of the "sexual harassment"?

Playback &#8217;15] The Mystery of the &#8220;Sexual Harassment&#8221; that Drove a Female Employee to Suicide: &#8220;He Visited Her Home and Forced Her to Perform Sexual Acts&#8221;&#8230;

Playback ’15] The Mystery of the “Sexual Harassment” that Drove a Female Employee to Suicide: “He Visited Her Home and Forced Her to Perform Sexual Acts”…

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