Former J employees sue Prada for sexual and power harassment, TV claims “racial discrimination”

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Hi Blog.  In an interesting twist to the whole “racial discrimination” issue in Japan, we have Japanese managers suing their former employer, world-famous luxury brand maker Prada, for alleged workplace sexual and power harassment, and “lookism” (i.e. treating people adversely based upon their “looks”).  Some excerpts from the Japan Times:

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The Japan Times Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fired Prada manager files suit (excerpt)
By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100320a8.html
Former Prada Japan manager Rina Bovrisse filed suit Friday with the Tokyo District Court, seeking compensation for emotional distress from alleged harassment, she and her lawyers said….

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The Japan Times Saturday, April 17, 2010
Ex-Prada exec claims harassment (excerpt)
By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100417a6.html
Former Prada Japan senior retail manager Rina Bovrisse, who is suing the company over emotional distress from alleged harassment, said Friday she took the action to support mistreated working women in Japan who don’t feel they have the power to fight their employers.

“I filed the lawsuit against Prada Japan for creating a working environment cruel and unsafe for women,” Bovrisse said at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court. “Prada Japan’s personnel practice is abusive to women.”

The civil trial, in which Bovrisse will argue that the Italian fashion company discriminated against her and other female workers for what the company president called poor appearance, will get under way May 14. She is demanding an apology, compensation and cancellation of her dismissal from the company….

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The Japan Times Saturday, May 15, 2010
Two former managers to file harassment suits against Prada (excerpt)

By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100515a9.html

Two former shop managers of Prada Japan will file harassment lawsuits against the company, a move inspired by a former senior retail manager who sued the company for another harassment case, her lawyer said Friday.

Yoshiki Kojima, the lawyer for former senior retail manager Rina Bovrisse, revealed the move when her suit commenced before the Tokyo District Court. Bovrisse is demanding the company apologize, pay compensation for emotional distress and come up with measures to prevent harassment. […]

Bovrisse alleges Prada Japan’s CEO asked her to get rid of shop managers and assistant managers who he described as unattractive last May. After she refused to do so, Prada Japan’s human resources manager gave most of those managers, including the two planning to file suit, transfer orders that amounted to demotions in May and June last year, according to Bovrisse and a shop manager and two assistant shop managers who received the orders.

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不当に解雇されたとして「プラダジャパン」を訴えていた元女性部長が法廷で意見陳述
FNN News May 14, 2010

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00177301.html
セクハラやパワハラを受け、不当に解雇されたとして「プラダジャパン」を訴えていた元女性部長が、14日に法廷に立った。対するプラダジャパン側も、全面的に争う姿勢。
白いワンピースにピンクのベルトを着用し、全身シャネルのスタイルで法廷へと向かう、「プラダジャパン」の元部長・ボヴリース里奈さん(36)。
ボヴリースさんは、「『やっときょう(14日)から始まる』という感じで。ただ真っすぐ行くっていう感じで」と話し、東京地裁へと向かった。
ボヴリースさんは、プラダジャパンから一方的に解雇されたとして、解雇の無効と慰謝料を求める訴えを起こしており、その1回目の裁判が14日に行われた。
解雇のいきさつについて、ボヴリースさんは4月に、「やせろ。オペレーション部長としてふさわしくない。ミラノ本社からの訪問者にも絶対に紹介したくないし、見せたくない(と言われた)」と話した。
2009年9月、人事部長から社長の言葉として、「やせろ」、「君の醜さが恥ずかしい」などと言われたため、イタリアの本社に直接報告したところ、部長職を解かれたなどとしている。
労働審判に訴えるも認められず、結局解雇となったため、異議を申し立て民事裁判で争うこととなった。
4月、ボヴリースさんは、「被害を受けた方全員に謝罪をしていただきたいし、やはりこういうことがあったことは認めて、そこからどうやって改善できるかっていうことを考えていただきたいですし」と話した。
提訴を受け、プラダ本社は、「プラダは、プラダに対してなされたそのイメージを傷つけるいかなる非難をも名誉棄損とみなします。プラダの権利を守るために、かつ、プラダの事業が被るすべての重大な損害に対して、会社は必要に応じて決然と対抗します」とコメントしていた。
14日の第1回の審理を前に、ボヴリースさんは、「『真実』という意味があるかなと思って、特に意識しているわけではないですけど、なぜか『白』を必ず選んでしまって。ピンクが好きなので、ハッピーカラーなので。たぶん、最後までピンクと白で通すと思います」と話していた。
午前10時45分に開廷。
ボヴリースさんは、「わたしは、性差別やハラスメントで苦しんでいる、すべての日本人の女性のために、立ち上がるべきだと考えました」と述べ、証言台で、しっかりとした声で意見陳述を行った。
その際、被告側の代理人の方に目を向ける場面が何度か見られた。
ボヴリースさんは閉廷後、「(意見陳述を)読み上げている時にも、怒りが増してきて、『こんな状況を代理するってどういうこと!』ということで、あまりにも感情的になってしまって、見てしまいました。にらみつけてしまいました。(プラダ側の反応は?)もう『無視』って感じなんですけれども、大丈夫です。これから無視できないよう頑張ります」と話した。
一方、プラダジャパン側は、全面的に争う姿勢を示し、ボヴリースさん本人に対し、名誉棄損などで反訴するとしている。
次回公判は、7月2日に予定されている。
(05/14 18:53)

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COMMENT:  Good, in the sense that people who are treated badly by employers don’t just take it on the chin as usual.  But what makes this a Debito.org issue is the allegation, made by at least one morning Wide Show (“Sukkiri” last Monday, May 17), is that the companies are practicing “racial discrimination” (jinshu sabetsu).

Funny thing, that.  If this were a Japanese company being sued for harassment (some examples here), there would be no claim of racial discrimination (as race would not be a factor).  But this time it’s not a Japanese company — it’s Prada.  Yet when NJ or naturalized Japanese sue for racial discrimination (as they did in the Otaru Onsen Case), the media would NEVER call it “racial discrimination”, merely “cultural misunderstandings” and the like.

Another example of the Japanese media saying racism is only something done TO Japanese, never BY Japanese?

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

12 comments on “Former J employees sue Prada for sexual and power harassment, TV claims “racial discrimination”

  • Debito – It is a Japanese company. I’m sure if you look up the company registration details you will find that it is a Kabushiki Kaisha.
    That means it is a Japanese company.

    That the original branch is an Italian company doesn’t really make any difference. Calling it an Italian company is the same argument as saying ‘you are not Japanese because your parents are not Japanese’.

    Was this company run by Japanese people? Were her bosses Japanese? This things are not mentioned in the article but I’m willing to go out on a limb and guess they were.

    OK, after doing some searching, I found that the CEO of Japan Prada is not Japanese (Davide Sesia). So I take back the last sentence..

    — But if there’s no foreign element to the case, why was the “racial discrimination” issue raised, I wonder.

    Reply
  • jjobseeker says:

    Sukkiri’s stance is not surprising since that’s on NTV, a Yomiyuri supported station, which pretty much tows the LDP line (i.e. “whoa is us” when its Japanese as victims and “we’re completely innocent” when it’s a NJ as the victim). In fact, you’ll find that the case on most of NTV’s Wide Shows.

    Reply
  • A horrible case of power harassment, yes, but no evidence of racial discrimination as of now. It really is an irresponsible comment from the show.

    Fortunately they’re NOT saying the same thing on the net (a search for”プラダ 人種差別  ボヴリース” returned no results).

    Reply
  • – But if there’s no foreign element to the case, why was the “racial discrimination” issue raised, I wonder.

    The plaintiff, Rina Bovrisse, is hafu (I’m guessing). Maybe her hair wasn’t black enough.

    Reply
  • Let’s hope this is the first of a trend. I’d love to see racial discrimination talked about more. Maybe they don’t connect it to J-on-NJ yet, but we have more chance to raise our points if they’re at least interested in the issue one way or another.

    Side note: Debito, I don’t think your hunch is entirely wrong (even if Prada Japan is run by 100% native Japanese with ancestries traceable to the Kojiki, as a brand it’s not a native-Japanese phenomenon), but your logic here is somewhat circular; “Racial discrimination is being raised as an issue only because there is a foreign element involved. How do I know a foreign element is involved? Because otherwise they wouldn’t raise racial discrimination as an issue.”

    Last, TJJ, you’re right that calling Prada Japan an Italian company is the same argument as saying ‘you are not Japanese because your parents are not Japanese’. One of the biggest racial problems here is that people think exactly that way (for example, the latest Ishihara blood-purity fiasco).

    Reply
  • > OK, after doing some searching, I found that the CEO of Japan Prada is not Japanese (Davide Sesia).

    Maybe, but how did you determine that?
    I could not find information about Davide Sesia’s nationality.
    Like Debito or my name, Davide Sesia is not a very typical Japanese name, but it is just that: a name.

    Reply
  • So, its only OK to mention racial discrimination if a “foreign” company(Regardless of all japanese staff, it is still seen as a “foreigner company”?) is the one making the discrimination? “We can’t be racist, we are Japanese, but those foreigners….THEY are the racist ones here…”

    It doesn’t make that much sense.

    Reply
  • This sounds more like the slippery slope of looksism and does a company have the right to hire people who present a specific “look”. For instance, sexism=bad but is it really sexism if a restaurant like hooters hires only attractive women with a certain feature exaggerated or is that their business model? Does a company have a right to say fire a salesman who goes out and gets a large facial tattoo? Does a clothing company have the right to only employee models who are size 0? Or does a luxury goods company have a right to say it only wants women who are at a certain arbitrary level of attractiveness?

    My general feeling is that if the women were hired then unless something about their appearance changed they shouldn’t have been dismissed (never mind that there is a wealth of research that suggests that women would rather buy something from a less attractive salesperson). But Risa’s argument seems to be that she was mistreated because she refused to fire these women not that she was discriminated against…

    — Agreed. Let’s see how this all comes out in the wash of a courtroom. But remember this blog entry’s point is how some media spun it into a case of racial discrimination, which as I have written before is a taboo topic if Japanese people domestically are doing it to NJ. Let’s somehow connect with that.

    Reply
  • Valentina says:

    I often read this blog, but I never commented before as I have never been to Japan and so I prefer not to comment on issues such as the ones discussed here, but this time I think I can be useful: the CEO’s name, Davide Sesia, is undoubtedly Italian. I know because I’m Italian, too (also, the last name Sesia is typical of the area where I’m from, in Piedmont, North-Western Italy). I did a quick search and found a Japan Times article which says:
    “A native of Italy, Sesia studied Japanese prior to receiving a master’s in business administration from an Italian university in 1991. A few months later, he was in Japan, working in retail before becoming chief financial officer at Benetton Japan in 1998.” Here is the full article: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20040113b5.html.
    As the CEO is a native Italian and probably an Italian citizen too (as far as I know, Italians who live abroad are usually not very keen on giving up their citizenship) I think that it could be considered a case of racial discrimination, though actually I’m not sure of it…I feel this is more of a case of “lookism”, which is no better than racism, in my opinion.
    Just my two cents.

    Reply
  • let`s talk says:

    TJJ, Rina is not “hafu”. She is a Japanese national. Bovrisse is her French husband’s last name.

    Reply

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