"If you don't like it, quit."

That ill-tempered remark, lately uttered by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, echoes a sentiment frequently encountered in people in authority — but how true is it? How free are we to "quit" what we don't like?

Hashimoto was addressing the 513 city workers defying his order to come clean about their hidden tattoos, if any. Back in February, recounts Weekly Playboy magazine, a staffer at a local children's facility flashed a tattoo at the kids — presumably to amuse them, but it backfired. "Tattoo" to many people suggests "yakuza." Gangsters do sport them, but not exclusively — tattoo parlors are open to the general public and body art is not criminal. Like many things, tattoos are easier to acquire than to erase. Given the prevailing prejudice against them, a tattoo can turn into a kind of brand. Many gyms, hot springs, swimming pools and other public resorts won't let you in with one. The children's facility staffer should have thought twice. He presumably knew — it's common knowledge — that Hashimoto's late father was a gang member. It's a fact likely to awaken acute sensitivity in a politician. Be that as it may, Hashimoto reacted by issuing a questionnaire to all 33,500 municipal employees under his jurisdiction — did they have hidden tattoos? Anyone refusing to answer would, he vowed, be denied promotion. Unfair? Arbitrary? Too bad. Don't like it? Quit.