A survey on customer harassment conducted by Tokyo Shoko Research revealed that 71.5% of the approximately 5,000 companies that responded said they had “not taken any particular measures.” About 20% of companies had experienced customer harassment in the past year, and of these, about 10% had employees take leave or quit, but the survey revealed the reality that companies are lagging behind in creating workplaces where people can work with peace of mind.

By size, 54.5% of large companies and 73.4% of small and medium-sized companies responded that they had not taken any measures. Small and medium-sized companies cited reasons such as “we cannot afford to take measures” due to financial and human resources issues. Another factor was that “it is difficult to warn business partners, who are our customers.”

Among the initiatives being implemented by companies, the most common was employee training (12.4%), followed by setting up consultation desks, formulating response policies, and installing audio and video recording equipment.