Pharmacies in Japan facing harassment, online stalking

OSAKA - If you go into a pharmacy in Japan today, you may find the pharmacist filling your prescription or giving you advice on medication doesn't have their full name printed on their nametag. This is just one measure implemented by the national government to deal with a grim reality: pharmacists are being victimized by stalkers and customer harassment as it becomes easier to identify people online.

A manager of a major pharmacy chain told the Mainichi Shimbun that someone had tracked down a young female employee on social media, with the full name printed on her nametag. He said that a customer threatened to expose an employee's name on the internet.

The Health Ministry's Pharmaceutical Safety and Environmental Health Bureau had asked pharmacy and store managers to wear nametags printed with their first and last names until recently. The drugstore chain whose manager spoke to the Mainichi Shimbun followed that guidance. The number of customers harassing or stalking pharmacists went up dramatically from around 2020, leading employees to request transfers or take leave due to physical and mental health issues.

According to the drugstore chain manager in his 50 s, around the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic in Japan, many stressed customers discontented with mask shortages and confusion around PCR tests took out their frustrations on employees. There are still customers who barge into stores and ask questions about PCR tests that staff can't answer.

In late June of this year, the health ministry changed its guidance to allow nametags showing only the surname or an alias. The manager's chain has had staff use name tags that show only their last names since August.

A 26-year-old pharmacist working for another chain in Aichi Prefecture said that her shop is considering dropping full names from its nametags, and she thinks it won't interfere with work. Masayo Domyo, a 67-year-old pharmacist who operates a pharmacy in the Osaka Prefecture City of Izumisano, questioned the move, saying that as a general rule, employees wear nametags with their full names. Can pharmacists build trusting relationships and work responsibly without them? Concerns have also been raised about anonymization in society. Professor Kenji Omata at Surugadai University in Saitama Prefecture pointed out that there are some people who don't know how to relieve stress and frustration, and we are in an age where we don't know who will attack us, or from where. The problem of disrupted communication with customers will likely cause store decisions to be different from one to the other. After anonymization, we need to think about the state of society.