Bandai Namco Sued for Racial Discrimination

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that the Japanese are fairly xenophobic, at least, more so than many other countries you might find. Casual racism is just one of the things they partake in, and while I’m not defending it by any stretch, it is one of those things you have to expect when dealing with the Japanese—it’s a cultural thing, it’s not about to change, you have to just thicken your skin.

That said—when you’ve been hired to work for a Japanese company and you experience extreme racism from your bosses and co-workers that’s willfully ignored by your human resource department? Then you have issues—issues startlingly similar to Vietnamese-American and former senior manager of financial planning for Bandai Namco, Tony Le. Tony Le is suing his former bosses, managers, as well as both the Japanese and North American branches of Bandai Namco for discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination—all stemming from the fact he’s half-American.

According to My News LA, who broke the story:
 

“Le and other employees who were not Japanese were subjected to verbal abuse in Japanese, condescending gestures and 'obscene laughter,' the suit alleges.

In 2013, Bandai’s former CEO, Matsuo Masayaka, told Le, 'All you Americans are so stupid and don’t know how to run a business'; 'If I could I would fire all the Americans'; and 'Japan should have bombed Pearl Harbor again,' the suit alleges.

Other supervisors told Le he was a 'stupid American' for enrolling in USC’s MBA program, according to his lawsuit.

...He alleges he also was excluded from company meetings and dinners in which only Japanese employees were invited.”

He continued to say he was constantly denied information he needed to perform well at his job, was told to ‘keep silent’ when he raised the issue to Bandai Namco HR, and that he had been fired last March due to his race.

While all these accusations are alleged and certainly unprovable, it’s not unbelievable, particularly from such a profoundly Japanese Company as Bandai Namco. If Tony has any hope of actually winning, however, depends on his evidence—no matter how strong his case may seem, good lawyers and deeper pockets can do a lot to hurt a cause like this.

Well, here’s hoping he’s either wrong, or justice is served. I’d like a happy ending to this story.