In early December, a YouTube video of a Sagawa Express Co. delivery man throwing and kicking parcels went viral. The scene was recorded outside a Tokyo apartment building to which, apparently, the man had failed to deliver some packages because the recipients were not at home. This caused him to lose his temper, since it meant he would have to return later, and he took out his frustration on the parcels. To make matters worse, the day was quite windy, forcing the man to chase after several boxes.
Sagawa apologized to the public and said the delivery man "regretted" what happened, but by that point the video had already been viewed thousands of times and TV stations had covered it extensively. Public reaction was split between condemnation and sympathy.
According to the transport ministry, the three main takuhai (home delivery) services — Yamato, Sagawa and Japan Post, which together account for 91 percent of all parcel deliveries in Japan — handled 3.4 million items in 2015. Given that the ministry estimates 23.5 percent of packages are not delivered on the first attempt, that's a lot of potential tantrums.
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