Nippon Television follows the “rookie” female police officer with a heavy-duty motorcycle, who has to come in early every day to clean the office! She has been criticized by netizens as simply a bad habit!

Have office workers ever been assigned to do trivial tasks like cleaning the office when they just joined a new company and lacked experience? Recently, a Japanese television news program, by filming the daily work routine of a young female police officer who is new to the job, unexpectedly revealed that she must arrive at work half an hour earlier than her colleagues every day to be responsible for cleaning the office, which sparked heated discussions online.

Netizens expressed that this phenomenon is a sort of “bad habit” and even considered it a form of implicit “discrimination.” Let’s take a look at the tasks this novice policewoman has each morning…

This news program followed a young police officer named Mayu Kawamoto, who is currently part of the traffic mobile unit in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, and is being interviewed and filmed for a television program.

The program’s footage captured her responding to duties while riding a heavy motorcycle, and she is also shown practicing riding, even choosing to ride the motorcycle on her way to and from work.

However, when Miss Kawamoto’s arrival at the office in the morning was presented, it sparked a great controversy online.

Miss Kawamoto arrives at the police station every morning at 7 o’clock, and at that time, the office is almost empty.

 She is responsible for opening the office door and turning on the lights.

Afterwards, she began using the vacuum cleaner to clean the floor. The specific steps were to vacuum the floor first, and then wipe down all the surfaces of the desks with a cloth.

 At 7:30, other senior colleagues gradually started to arrive.

It was this filmed segment that sparked extensive discussions among Japanese netizens. Supporters believe that this practice is “discriminatory,” as neither low rank nor being a woman should require rookie employees to arrive early to do cleaning work.

Even if Kawamoto is willing, it may still set a bad precedent, putting pressure on future newcomers.

On the other hand, some people argue that if we do not distinguish by gender, it seems reasonable for all newcomers to be responsible for cleaning duties.

 Here are some reactions from Japanese netizens:

• While watching this police ride-along program, I found that this rookie female officer has to be the first to arrive at the office every morning to help clean and take out the trash. The show tries to package this as a ‘virtue’, but it is simply unacceptable. Once such an example appears, there may be an unspoken rule in the future that ‘newcomers have to clean up early’.
• In the future, there may be people saying ‘the newcomers before were… but this year’s newcomers…’
•  The boss should stop this behavior.
• In fact, this might be considered a precautionary measure to avoid any mistakes in the future.
• If all newcomers, regardless of gender, must clean, then that’s fine.

Some netizens mentioned that their family members are police officers, and regardless of gender, newcomers have to help their colleagues with tea and handle garbage. Although it has been heard that these habits have gradually disappeared in recent years, if assigned by a superior, they still have to comply. Moreover, doing these tasks might enhance evaluations among more experienced colleagues. Therefore, this situation is still quite common in society.

 Does your workplace have such habits?