e-Learning Blog

The "Customer Harassment Prevention Ordinance" enacted in Tokyo in April 2025 positions "nuisance acts that significantly harm employees' working environment" as issues that businesses must address.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare also defines these as "significant nuisance acts from customers, etc.," and the ordinance requires companies to handle this at the practical level.
Specific acts anticipated by the ordinance include the following.

・Excessive demands for apologies without justifiable reasons
・Verbal abuse or threats that deny a person's dignity
・Unreasonable demands beyond the scope of work
・Long hours of detention or intimidating behavior
・Defamation through SNS, etc. (so-called “digital customer harassment”)

It is important to note that these are not merely "customer service troubles," but are regarded as social issues that companies must address through formal systems.

The background behind the growing concern over customer harassment includes increased awareness of workers' mental health and labor shortages in the service industry.

There is also an aspect where the structure of companies placing too much emphasis on “customer satisfaction” leads to excessive demands on employees, which in turn exacerbates the damage caused by customer harassment. Additionally, new forms of harassment have emerged, such as defamatory remarks made anonymously on the internet, increasing the complexity of responses.

Customer harassment not only causes stress to individual employees but also has a serious impact on the entire organization.

・Increase in employees' mental health issues and turnover
・Decline in overall workplace motivation
・Deterioration of service quality and customer satisfaction
・Damage to corporate image and increased risk of litigation

In particular, urgent measures are necessary in occupations with frequent customer interactions such as customer service, sales, and telephone support.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Customer Harassment Prevention Ordinance (Effective 2025)

From April 1, 2025, Tokyo will enforce the nation’s first “Customer Harassment Prevention Ordinance.”
This ordinance prohibits acts such as abusive language, threats, and excessive demands without justifiable reasons by customers and others, and imposes a duty of effort on businesses to create guidelines and establish systems to prevent customer harassment.
Specifically, it recommends the development of internal manuals, employee training, customer warnings, and the establishment of recording systems.
Although the ordinance does not include penalty provisions, failure to respond may lead to a decline in corporate reputation and trust, creating an environment where practical systematization in cooperation with legal and labor departments is required.

Obligation under the Amendment to the Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Policies Act

Furthermore, at the national level, on June 4, 2025, the amendment bill to the Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Policies Act was passed and enacted by the Diet, clearly establishing the obligation for companies to implement measures against customer harassment. From October 2026, this will become mandatory. As a result, companies that neglect efforts to protect their employees may face risks such as public disclosure of their company name and liability for damages.

As customer harassment measures are shifting from "aspirational goals" to "legal obligations," it is important to advance training and system development at an early stage.

The next chapter introduces specific measures companies should take based on this ordinance.

To protect employees from customer harassment, the following organizational measures are important.

・Establishing internal rules for handling customer harassment (manuals, guidelines, etc.)
・Setting up consultation desks for employees
・Training and education for managers and frontline staff
・Raising awareness among customers (posters, information on the website, etc.)
・Collaboration with external organizations (lawyers, labor consultants, counselors, etc.)

It is also important to clearly define the reporting procedures and recording methods when experiencing customer harassment.

Furthermore, establishing measures based on guidelines from local governments and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is also effective in the event of lawsuits or administrative guidance.

To effectively advance measures against customer harassment, education for employees working on the front lines is also indispensable.

In education, it is important to keep the following points in mind.

・Clearly communicate the definition and specific examples of customer harassment
・Mindset to avoid getting emotionally involved
・Risks of harassment from a legal perspective

Education and training not only enhance employees' sense of security but also serve as legal evidence that the company is implementing measures to prevent customer harassment.
Especially after the enforcement of the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance, recording implementation history and updating training materials are also important as part of compliance with laws and regulations.

>e-Learning Material: STOP! Customer Harassment – Basic Knowledge of Customer Harassment –

Using e-learning materials is highly effective as an educational method to share accurate knowledge of customer harassment within the company.

Our company offers the educational material "STOP! Harassment - Basic Knowledge of Customer Harassment", which also complies with the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance.
This material allows you to learn in about 30 minutes the definition of customer harassment, typical behaviors, criteria for judgment, responses that companies and employees should take, and case studies.

Please make use of this as a first step for your organization to address this "new form of harassment," alongside power harassment, sexual harassment, and maternity harassment.

Additionally, Human Science offers a variety of training materials ranging from business manners to courses on utilizing generative AI.

Human Science e-Training Material Manuscript Sales

We also support customization and multilingualization for each company, so please feel free to contact us if you have any requests.

Reference URL List
・Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "Customer Harassment Countermeasure Corporate Manual"
・Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "Partial Amendments to the Act on Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Policies, Stability of Employment of Workers, and Enrichment of Working Life, etc. in 2025"
・Tokyo Metropolitan Government "Customer Harassment Prevention Ordinance Portal Site"