By News18
In an outrageous act, a Japanese company has adopted a disgraceful way of punishing employees who fail to meet their sales targets. Headquartered in Osaka, Japan, the underperforming employees of the Neo Corporation were forced to take nude pictures of themselves and were further assaulted physically by the boss. Neo Corporation works in the sector of selling electricity and energy-saving equipment and installing it. It currently has nine branches across Japan.
As per the South China Morning Post, the shocking incident came to light after five of their former employees filed a lawsuit in March this year, citing verbal abuse and harassment by those in power. In the filing, an individual claimed that the sales manager would force employees to take nude photos of themselves if they failed to make a sale in a day. The punishment didn鈥檛 just end here, as the pictures were then circulated among other employees with a message received by the targetted employee, saying, 鈥淚t has been shared.鈥
The employee also alleged that the superior would frequently punish him in a humiliating manner by grabbing his private parts. 鈥淢y superior claimed he was not using much force, but it was so painful I could hardly speak. This kind of thing happens all the time,鈥 he said. Upon reaching out to the branch manager, he was laughed off, with the latter commenting, 鈥淓veryone has gone through this.鈥 The employee claimed that he was diagnosed with adjustment disorder and depression due to such punishments.
The allegations weren鈥檛 just limited to taking nude pictures, as it was also reported that overtime and verbal abuse had become a common thing. A branch manager was allegedly slapped by the company director for skipping an official dinner. Among other claims were deducting sales commissions, asking employees to transfer money back to the company from their salary, and imposing severe penalties like fines for traffic violations, some reportedly reaching as high as six million yen ($42,000).
It was finally in March 2025 when five former employees filed the lawsuit, seeking 19 million yen (US$132,000) in damages for unfair wage deductions and workplace bullying. As of now, the company has denied the allegation, stating that there are factual errors based on one-sided perspectives. Notably, this is not the first time that the company has made headlines. Previously, Neo Corporation鈥檚 recruitment advertisements, which claimed the average income for sales staff was 14.27 million yen ($97,000), had the internet鈥檚 attention.