News recently broke out that disciplinary action was taken against a fire sergeant and nine other staff members of a fire department in Japan after they played board games while on duty, and the public has been equal parts appalled and intrigued by the case.
As reported by Mainichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, the Inazawa City Fire Department in Aichi Prefecture announced on April 10 that it had suspended a fire sergeant in his 40s for one month for coercing his colleagues to participate in board games while on duty, and issued written reprimands to the nine crew members who participated.
This went on between July 2024 and January 2025, with the fire sergeant reportedly forcing his colleagues to participate in board games he had created himself using rules modelled after various card- and word-based games. The crew members had to spend even their nap breaks on board games, while employees who refused received the cold shoulder from the fire sergeant. The whole thing came to light after an employee reported it to the workplace in January. In response, the fire sergeant said his actions were intended as a form of communication building, expressing “deep” remorse.
According to the report, there were about 10 types of board games at the fire department, all of which the sergeant had made himself by writing on blank pieces of paper. One of the employees who received disciplinary action participated in the games 14 times while on duty, totaling a whopping 35 hours, and even more shockingly, another participant was the fire chief, who was also reprimanded.
A noteworthy detail about the incident is that no money was exchanged between players, meaning there was no gambling involved. This has made the Japanese public even more curious about the case, with users on X proposing various conspiracy theories as to what went on – from speculation that the sergeant needed playtesters for his game prototypes so badly he resorted to power harassment; to theories that the homebrew games were extraordinarily fun and everyone was actually “in on it” (this likely comes from the fact that a number of them reportedly colluded to cover up the incident after it was discovered). Of course, the reported facts suggest employees were faced with repercussions if they refused, which most definitely constitutes workplace harassment and is no laughing matter, even when juxtaposed with the light subject matter of makeshift board games.
