Itagaki getting sued over sexual harassment

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I wondered why Tomonobu Itagaki (Tecmo) had been demoted on Aug. 4 with an undisclosed reason,
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=842594#post842594
http://www.tecmo.co.jp/company/pdf/2006080401.pdf (PR in Japanese)

but the possible reason has been disclosed by a Japanese tabloid paper today.
http://www.zakzak.co.jp/top/2006_11/t2006110710.html

Basically Itagaki was sued for sexual harassment by a female ex-employee who did PR job for Tecmo. I heard a rumor about it before but thought it was a joke that arose from the nature of the DOA series. But the reality is sometimes stranger than games!

According to the article, it began 3 years ago when Itagaki and she got on a taxi after a karaoke party. It was after Itagaki's dialog with some corporate executive for a magazine article, so it's in working hours. In the taxi Itagaki said "you've married, right?" and kissed her without her consent then touched her body. She couldn't resist in fear of Itagaki, but when he tried to take her to a hotel she cried so he gave up. Of course Itagaki has a wife and a child.

After that Itagaki repeated harassment, sometimes he locked the reception room in the company and hugged her in that room. At the E3 in the last year, he visited her hotel room disguising as if it's related to his job, and insisted on having a sexual relationship with her.

In this year she became mentally ill and often absent from the office. Until July the company didn't listen to her but the new personnel manager started counseling for sexual harassment so she asked an advice. Then Tecmo investigated Itagaki but he denied though he admitted he did a kiss. Itagaki was demoted for an undisclosed reason, but he stayed there without a change in his work and the company gave no explanation about it. Tecmo told her that it couldn't be identified as sexual harassment, so she quit her job and sued Itagaki and Tecmo in September for 10 million yen. She's 31 now. Tecmo disagrees with what she believes and is ready to go to the court.
 
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http://www.zakzak.co.jp/top/2006_11/t2006110710.html

I former employee of Tecmo is suing them, in particular Itagaki for the sum of 1 million dollars.

She claims that after a business party they shared a taxi, both living in the same direction, where Itagaki said to her. "You're married aren't you." "Well I like you" and proceeded to force himself upon her, going so far as to put his tongue inside of her mouth as well as grope her thigh and breasts. Both in shock as to what was happening and fear as to what an influential member of the company could do to her she froze up, but someone managed to convince him to back off. After they got out of the taxi he again grabbed her by the wrist and tried to lead her to a love hotel. It goes on to state that on many occassions he would lock himself in with her in the corporate waiting room where he would try to caress her, and carried out similar acts of sexual harassment while on business trips together.

The employee complained to the company, but was told to "Solve the problem herself". Itagaki admitteed to kissing the woman but claims, "The feeling was mutual". The company reprimanded him for irresponsible behavior and he was demoted, but maintained the exact same position and responsibilities.

Suffering psychological trauma the woman took two weeks off from work, where she eventually quit.

If this is indeed true Go Tecmo and Go Itagaki F*n morons.
 
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Shocking! The man who created DOA is a total pig when it comes to women.

Anyway, if what she says is what really happened then I feel bad for her and hope she wins the case.

But of course, there is always two sides to a story.
 
OMG!! Thats ublelievable! Its crazy. :LOL:
The guy seemed nuts but never expected him to be THAT nuts
 
The release of DOAX2 is very near but he won't be able to appear in a PR job. How will Tecmo get out of this mess, that's very interesting. Also Itagaki's career as a game designer may just end even though what she says is not true. :cool: (<-- no, it's not a "cool" emoticon, but an Itagaki icon!)
 
10 million yen is about 85k here, is that a lot compared to the money Tecmo has at their disposal? I suppose it could be settled, but how much would this hurt his career is the question.

In any light, this is pretty weird, thats for sure. lol
 
It will be interesting to see what witnesses can be gathered (and the "innocent until proven guilty"). He is surely wierd, and the content of some of his pron... errr... "games" opens him wide open for this sort of accusation. Not surprising that he was accused nor would it be surprising if he was guilty (for shame--kissing a married woman? Horrible), but only time will tell on the former.
 
If I recall corectly, something similar happened with the President of Namco. I don't remember if it happened in San Jose or back in Japan.



Anyway, Japanese culture tends to treat females as pond scum in general. Japanese culture in general is very vile. Look what they did during World War 2, yet even to this day they tend to deny the human atrocites.


Thank god for George W. Bush and his willingness to stand up to evil. Perhaps one day Japan will become somthing more than a cesspool of morality.
 
Brimstone said:
Anyway, Japanese culture tends to treat females as pond scum in general. Japanese culture in general is very vile. Look what they did during World War 2, yet even to this day they tend to deny the human atrocites.

Thank god for George W. Bush and his willingness to stand up to evil. Perhaps one day Japan will become somthing more than a cesspool of morality.
Click to expand...

OK, I'm trying very hard to work out whether this is satire or not? Can you give me a clue?
 
Gerry said:
OK, I'm trying very hard to work out whether this is satire or not? Can you give me a clue?
Click to expand...


I hope Bill Gates gets wind of this and orders Peter Moore to sever ties with Tecmo until Itagaki is removed. Peter Moore himself should be furious over this. It's flat out wrong to treat women this way.

I believe in innocence until proven guilty, but I do have a double standard when it comes to Japanese soceity. The Japannese culture tends to treat women very bad. This is fact.


I'm not claiming the US or Europe are some superior society, but the tolerance level for this type of behaviour is lower in the US and Europe. It's flat out wrong for a human being because of gender to be treated as an animal.
 
Gerry said:
OK, I'm trying very hard to work out whether this is satire or not? Can you give me a clue?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure either. I'm hoping though ...

This kind of thing is a tough call, but the story seems believable. But I wont judge until he's convicted (I'm old-fashioned, but I generally stick to innocent until proven guilty).

At any case, someone who creates a game like this (and, by the way, who has a daughter?) should expect to be kept to higher standards than usual, so it's probably stupid. If this was just one drunk attempt, I'd say shame for him but let it go, but if he's attempted this time and time again, then oh boy ...
 
PARANOiA said:
From Console Games to Console Talk to General Discussion, soon to RPSC ;)
Click to expand...




Speaking for myself I'd want to beat the living crap out of the anyone doing this to her if I was a Tecmo employee. This Japanese woman probably has no allies.
 
Brimstone said:
I hope Bill Gates gets wind of this and orders Peter Moore to sever ties with Tecmo until Itagaki is removed. Peter Moore himself should be furious over this. It's flat out wrong to treat women this way.

I believe in innocence until proven guilty, but I do have a double standard when it comes to Japanese soceity. The Japannese culture tends to treat women very bad. This is fact.


I'm not claiming the US or Europe are some superior society, but the tolerance level for this type of behaviour is lower in the US and Europe. It's flat out wrong for a human being because of gender to be treated as an animal.
Click to expand...

Okaaaaaaay. I don't think anyone would disagree that, if true, Itagaki's behaviour is unacceptable. I can't say I have a clue how well/badly women are treated in general in Japanese society, but I'd suggest it's quite a reach to claim that Japan is a "cesspool of morality" and that George W Bush is somehow the shining light to which we should all aspire.
 
inefficient said:
Shocking! The man who created DOA is a total pig when it comes to women.

Anyway, if what she says is what really happened then I feel bad for her and hope she wins the case.

But of course, there is always two sides to a story.
Click to expand...

Well isnt that normal for Japanese men? I mean they got special trains for woman because of men groping them. 95% of japanese men want to have sex with girls that could easily be their daughter in age and its normal to go to the red light district during lunch time to ''get some sex'' no matter if your married or not. Dont really understand why they treat woman so bad. The few Japanese girls I met looked alot nicer (looks and personality) than most western woman I know.

But than again, ive got some kind of weird fetish for Japanese/chinese girls (this one girl at the local chinese restaurant is soooooo cute).
 
:)

Bad_Boy said:
10 million yen is about 85k here, is that a lot compared to the money Tecmo has at their disposal? I suppose it could be settled, but how much would this hurt his career is the question.

In any light, this is pretty weird, thats for sure. lol
Click to expand...

I think they're going about it as "It's not about the money... It's the principle".

Them settling would equal as them admitting they were wrong.
 
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