Crotchety employee sues crotch-obsessed DENTSU U.S.A. chief
An American who was creative director of the U.S. branch of Japan’s Dentsu advertising agency has sued the company over being pressured to visit a brothel and partake in other sexual activities, and then being canned for complaining.
In a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Steve Biegel said he and other company employees were put in awkward, sexually charged situations by Toyo Shigeta, chief executive officer of Dentsu Holdings USA.
According to Biegel, Shigeta claimed that having sex with prostitutes was an accepted form of doing business and celebrating business deals.
Biegel also claimed that Shigeta was fond of going to beaches and photographing the crotches of scantily clad women there.
[On business trip to Brazil Biegel witnessed Shigeta repeatedly taking photographs emphasizing the crotches of scantily clad women on the beach until a male companion of one of the women on the beach threatened him, the lawsuit said.
Shigeta demonstrated a similar obsession during a photo shoot for an advertisement for Canon in Key Biscayne, Fla., when he took a picture of tennis star Maria Sharapova on the tennis court and proudly distributed the "crotch shot," the lawsuit said.
In Japan, Biegel would probably be the one in hot water for conduct unbecoming a salaryman.
Biegel sounds like a bit of a wet biscuit. I’d rather go drinking with Shigeta
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:46 pmYea what’s wrong with this guy, what a party spoiler. He needs to get with the program.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:55 amIt wasn’t in the link posted here, but I think I read elsewhere that part of his lawsuit is over the humiliation he suffered when forced to enter a bath with other company men when visiting Japan. In other words, he went to an onsen w/ guys from the company and this traumatized him. Makes me wonder if he’s not just looking for a big payday.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:26 amThere was another American, or maybe the same guy, who was suing Mitsubishi along similar lines.
I am sure Margaret Mead could launch a bevy of lawsuits for her treatment in various parts of the world.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 amI’m torn on this issue, I kind of agree that being trapped in a room with voyeuristic perverts in a towel would be disturbing. And going to parties where the only women available are the ones you have to pay would be pretty lame.
On the other hand, its pretty weak to nark people out and reveal details of their personal life just for money.
Long story short, Shigeta should have got knocked out on the beach and the American shouldn’t stoop to the level of his boss’s money grubbing whores.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:40 amWell what he said about humiliation to go to onsen is pretty lame IMO,but I rather sympathize with him about being forced to visit a brothel.
I’ll bet that Shigeta’s age is in his late fifties or early sixties.
Somewhat typical about Japanese men in this age (of course not all of them). Some of them really believe that doing “nusty” things together (buying woman,going to Fuzoku) strengthen their ties.
Even young Japanese would feel such kind of things what Shigeta has done as harrassement I guess.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:24 amHe could’ve just ordered a back rub and a polite conversation with his lady friend. He didn’t need to order the full lube & tube service.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:42 amriki is right again. You don’t have to drink alcohol when you go to a bar, and you don’t have to play hide the sausage when you go to a brothel. That said, most brothel workers are a bit lacking when it comes to straight massages.
And I object to calling women money-grubbing whores because they work in a brothel. And are there those here who who don’t grub for money? Either they were born rich, or they grubbed enough to stop grubbing. The brothel workers are actually working for the money, and maybe not educated enough to make money by suing a corporation for “distres,” like Mr.Beagle.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:16 pm“You don’t have to drink alcohol when you go to a bar, and you don’t have to play hide the sausage when you go to a brothel.” –ghoti
That’s not the issue. The issue with this particular employee of Dentsu is the fact that in Asian business for the last 3,000 years, you have to f*** whores and drink yourself into liver failure with “the boys” in order to advance in the company.
This is an age-old tradition in most Asian cultures. It’s not being a “wet biscuit” to insist advancement in a company be based on your merit in your field and not at the whorehouse.
Vin
November 4th, 2007 at 3:43 amVin: 3000 years? Really?
Well, at least we agree that’s the way business is done in Asia. If you really feel that you should be promoted on only your narrow definition of merit, then why not start your own business and test your merit in the real world?
Oh yeah….because your clients will expect you to accompany them to whorehouses. Will you sue them, too?
Look, there are plenty of non-asian ad agencies out there. If the guy has any merit as a creative director, he could simply jump to one of those - rather than seeking the easy way out.
It’s perfectly reasonable to say that this way of doing business sucks. But it’s not reasonable to try to cash in by forcing US standards on other countries.
November 4th, 2007 at 4:32 amVin, I think you need to get out into the real world more. It’s hardly unique to Japan that high powered businessmen go to strip clubs or whore houses with their clients or each other. Or that group pressure to participate is used. You mean to tell me that you never faced peer pressure in college to drink alcohol or go to a strip club with the guys?
I also hadn’t realized there was a rule for this for all Asian businesses (from the Middle East to Japan?) for the last 3000 years. The things I learn on the internet!
November 4th, 2007 at 8:08 amSounds like the guy suing, is a money grubbing whore. Eventually they’ll realise it’s a legal liability to bring gaijin co-workers along to the bonding session. Then we’ll see suits for discrimination. Any guy that needs legal protection, from beer and pussy is a wet biscuit IMHO.
November 4th, 2007 at 11:49 amThe boss was caught taking pictures of women’s crotch (were children involved?) Surely, businessman like this are handled approporiately in Japan, so Americans aren’t required to “force” their standards to Japanese society?
I don’t know about brothels, but you do have to drink A LOT in Asia (especially korea), on social or business occasion. If you say “But you can just refuse” or drawF comparison to some frat boys pressuring you to drink in the US (Are you ever “pressured” to drink in collge or go to strip clubs?), then I don’t you get the whole picture.
The American is obviusly not entirely a victim himself since he played along. Let’s just say if you’re taking pictures of women’s privates and pressuring foreign workers (especially from the land of the lawsuits) to go to brothels, you deserve to be sued.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:50 am