Fuchu City Care Home Abuse: Staff Members also Victimized, Called ‘Crazy’

By Barrier Free Japan and Yahoo! Japan

July 18 2023

Fuchu City, TOKYO – It was not only the users of a care home in Fuchu City whom were victimized. Staff members were also subjected to assault, verbal abuse, and power harassment. One staff member was abused and told that he was “incompetent” and “crazy,” and that he should go to a hospital to get checked out. Another employee had documents thrown at him and was punched in the face. Some resigned because they could no longer stand the harassment.

Seiyo-kai’s parent organization is an association of parents of users. Therefore, one of the parents used to serve as the chairman of the board of directors, and the parents also testified as follows.

One parent said, “The board chairman’s child was beaten up by the former vice-chairman for ‘going to the bathroom too late.

One parent suggested to the parents’ association that they ask for an explanation of the accounting, but was told, “The former vice-chairman would beat me up if I did so.

Not only abuse, but also falsification of documents, and testimony of a “cover-up” nature

The investigation report describes the abuse of users by the former vice-chairman. One staff member testified, “I was so sick of hearing about it.” The former vice-chairman’s problems go beyond assault and verbal abuse. According to the report, there was also testimony from a staff member who said, “He made me work overtime until late.”

Whenever there was an administrative audit, the time cards were falsified at the direction of the former vice-chairman so that it would not be discovered that he had them working overtime until late. Documents that had not been completed were prepared as if they had all been completed by the time of the audit.”

The former vice-chairman received a salary that was not stipulated, and his wife and daughter were also on staff.

Seiyo-kai is also known to have failed to pay wages to users totaling more than 100 million yen over the past 10 years. Several staff members and family members have said that they do not know what the profits from the business were used for, and it is believed that opaque accounting procedures were used. A staff member also testified that “the organization has a deep-rooted tendency to cover up.

The report points out that staff members other than the former vice-chairman of the board of directors also engaged in psychological abuse and inappropriate support of users. One staff member yelled at users and told them that he would report them to the vice-chairman if they did not comply.