Nintendo Japan sued for power harassment and mental distress 

Two former employees at Nintendo recently took the company to court. In the case presented to the Kyoto District Court, the dispatch workers claimed that they had suffered mental distress due to power harassment and that Nintendo had unfairly refused to directly hire them. On February 27, the court recognized the harassment claim and ordered Nintendo to pay compensation of 200,000 yen (approximately 1,335 USD) but dismissed the claim for recognition of work position. 

According to an article in The Sankei Shimbun, the two women had been employed at Nintendo since 2018 as industrial nurses under an introductory dispatch system. Through such systems, temporary dispatched workers can expect to receive a permanent position in the company after a certain period of years working as a temp (based on mutual agreement of company and employee), in accordance with Japan’s Workers Dispatch Act. In September 2023, Nintendo informed the employees that they would not be directly hired by Nintendo due to difficulties in establishing a smooth, cooperative relationship with the industrial physician who was the nurses’ supervisor.  

The judge ruled that some of the supervisor’s behaviors constituted power harassment, including disagreements with the women about their work duties, ignoring their communications on necessary matters for carrying out work, and cancelling regular meetings. The court also found Nintendo liable for this power harassment as the employer. 

However, the court also found that the women were partially to blame for lack of cooperation, and so determined that it was not unreasonable for Nintendo to refuse to hire them directly.