Yeah, apology is actually quite a lot. But there's plenty of space to express sympathy and regret without admitting fault, and even quite bad companies usually manage that.
I agree. I just think that expressing sympathy and regret without admitting fault
is as much as the Riku video did.
[...] We unfortunately used the expression "negligible" to describe performance impact. Our wording lacked consideration for the situation, and caused Nijisanji EN fans and everyone who supports the VTuber industry to feel that Anycolor Inc. undervalued the impact of Selen's contract termination, and Selen herself. I deeply regret this outcome and will be rethinking how our communication in English is done. Without a doubt, Selen was integral to the growth of Nijisanji EN. As a company, it is truly unfortunate that our relationship ended the way it did. We regret that the notice we published on February 7th was worded this way. We made it sound like our company does not value the hard work of our livers. I deeply apologize. [...]
The PR might have been better if he had a more direct allusion to Selen's suicide attempts and hassling her in the hospital, but I can also see why a PR team might have explicitly advised Riku to avoid it. Although:
With how tightly micromanaged the Selen situation was I doubt there's any room to apologise without also ending up under the guillotine.
That people (both outside and probably within) Nijisanji still believe this, shows that Riku really needed to force Yasuhiro and the rest of NijiEN management to bow as well. If Riku can say Selen did not kill puppies, anyone else
should be able to, and any obstruction shows that Riku is a weak leader (which we knew TBF). I posit that NijiEN hasn't apologised because there is genuine resentment, on top of the influence of Yasuhiro or le clique. I'll admit it could still
all be Yasuhiro.
I asked earlier why Yasuhiro wasn't forced to apologise. But thinking about it, EN branch manager is his part-time position - his full-time position is in UMG. Humiliating or firing him would not just force Riku to find a proper replacement (who might ask for proper wages, the horror), it would also burn bridges with UMG. Good job using such a crucial position as a traded favour, Riku.
The comparison falls apart because Froot isn't our employee. There are laws in many countries, including Canada, as to how management can treat its employees, and discriminating against specific employees and harassing them is illegal. Nijisanji has obligations with how they treat Selen under Canadian law, and those obligations cannot be waived away because Selen is a contractor or because her employers were in Japan. On the other hand, we have no legal obligation to Froot or her welfare beyond what we'd have towards any other random person.
I mean, that's why I said Froot could just close the tab while Selen couldn't. The point of the comparison is that it's not
unimaginable that NijiEN would refuse to apologise, especially if they've gotten into a loop of "all she had to do was follow the rules".
With all that said, the Mika tax revelations show that the rot runs deep.
Being optimistic, this sounds like a big misunderstanding of Japanese tax withholding. If you're a contractor/casual worker then payments to you can (and in some circumstances must) have some tax withheld at source. But the withholding happens at the lowest tax rate (because the system is meant for, like, casual hourly workers first and foremost), so if you earn enough to hit a higher tax bracket then you're still obliged to file a tax return and pay the difference.
I can see this, but I think the following is telling:
2:00:25 talking about how she's grateful for the system - and how she never spent money out of her wallet to pay for the tax because every month, they took 10% for the taxes. It was written up specifically as money for taxes, and not just verbal.
2:05:05 Niji tells her that those were not her taxes, those were their taxes (I assume corporate income tax?)
Niji did not respond as to why they were taking their taxes from her payroll.
If this was because of Japanese tax withholding (willful misunderstanding or not on Nijisanji's part), they could have replied to Mika with "oh, we meant the Japanese tax withholding for contractors under Japanese law xyz, we saved you the trouble of filing your Japanese tax return, aren't we awesome? Your country's taxes are not our problem, please understand."
No response at all suggests someone was flailing for a proper response. Then again, her email might have gone to a high schooler who knew nothing about the tax deal who started wondering why he didn't apply to the konbini instead.
I would like to add that this type of shit is a good way to get financial feds involved to rail your shit. No idea what her government rules are, but if this shit happened in the US, the IRS would definitely begin digging. Also, given the state of the JP economy at the moment, I would not be surprised if she could get some solid results by contacting their authority to do the work for her. She probably wouldn't win or get anything substantial though.
I'm no legal expert, but is this how
Anesama_daisuki got redress?
Is there a timeframe for when this tax deal was made? Mika says she owed two years of taxes. Assuming some time for her resolving this situation, graduating from Niji, and telling this story now, the tax deal would have been made
before the NijiID merge to JP management, which was finalised 15 April 2022.
warosu.org
