Akihiro Nishino Sparks Debate After Saying ‘Slow-to-Respond Staff Should Just Quit’

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The story

On September 14, King Kong’s Akihiro Nishino posted a gripe on X about “staff who are slow to respond,” and it got picked up as a news article. The Yahoo News excerpt frames it as a general point that “a delayed reply stalls the other person’s decisions and creates a cost for the whole team,” but the thread title presents it as targeting “staff who need to care for children or family members,” and 5ch users were split — some reacting to the remark itself, others bringing up his past history of alleged workplace harassment.

9/14 (Mon) 16:21

Akihiro Nishino (46), of the comedy duo King Kong, updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 14th, describing the kind of staff he’d “like to see quit right away.”

Nishino opened with: “Yesterday I called out a staff member for being slow to respond, but I don’t think slow responses should just be waved off as ‘being bad at your job.’ Response speed is really about how you treat the other person’s time. When my reply is delayed, it stalls the other person’s decision-making, and that in turn stalls the work of whoever’s downstream of them. In other words, slow responses aren’t just my own problem — they rack up costs for the whole team.”

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

2AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:42
Because watching Showa-era retro exploration videos beats watching Peace-kun from Omiya Park on YouTube any day.
5AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:44
So, whatever happened with that museum you crowdfunded, huh?
103AnonymousSep 14, 2026 18:07
Re: #5

Apparently he's teaming up with the Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum on it.

This is the first permanent exhibition by King Kong's Akihiro Nishino, who's both a comedian and a picture-book author.
You can see the exhibit with regular admission to the Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum.
6AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:44
Using "childcare/caregiving" in that context is gonna stir up drama.
52AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:56
Re: #6
Re: #17
I figured it meant he didn't want to hire people who take time off or leave early for childcare or caregiving, but turns out it's more like: anyone who won't move the way His Majesty Nishino wants is basically an old person or a baby, so hurry up and quit lol
That's a pretty risky thing to say in this day and age, lmao
9AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:45
I wish 'Mr. Zip-Your-Mouth' would just quit already. (sarcastic nickname implying Nishino himself should pipe down)
10AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:45
So he's the one texting people after hours, and then getting mad that the reply is slow?
11AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:45
Re: #4
"I just want you all to know how small-minded I am!"
—basically his self-introduction.
12AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:45
Did everyone forget when he blew up over a Yoshimoto employee replying slowly at night or on a day off, and it turned into a whole controversy?
13AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:45
Guess it's one of those black companies where you can't even take childcare leave, huh.
14AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:46
Sounds like some serious power harassment going on over there.
15AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:46
Don't tell us that — go warn your own staff in private.
16AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:47
Isn't refusing time off for childcare or caregiving reasons actually against the law?
49AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:55
Re: #16
Go read it again.
17AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:47
Maybe he just shouldn't use the words "childcare" and "caregiving" for something like this?
19AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:48
He got run out of Yoshimoto over power harassment and he still hasn't learned a thing lol
21AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:48
Is he just cranky because Chiikawa is such a massive hit? (a rival cute-character franchise)
23AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:49
Classic case of people getting riled up just from the thread title lol
24AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:49
This one's not okay.
Dismissing something as fundamental to life as childbirth and childcare just because you're the boss — that's absolutely unacceptable.
48AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:54
Re: #24
I mean, shouldn't you first be thinking it's messed up to make someone work in that state at all?
64AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:58
Re: #24
You should work on your patience and actually read the whole thing.
92AnonymousSep 14, 2026 18:04
Re: #24
You should read it properly too.
27AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:50
If the pay's good enough to comfortably put them in a care facility, maybe that's fine?
29AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:50
He's just shifting the blame while conveniently ignoring that HE'S the one who hired them.
Seriously, stop putting this guy on a pedestal.
Japan's going to end up messed up.
30AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:50
The fact that he confidently puts this out there like it's some righteous argument says everything about how messed up Nishino is.
Reminds me of when he bragged on the radio about screaming at his staff.
32AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:51
That thread title is pretty malicious.
Well, it's Nishino, so I guess it's fine.
35AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:52
You guys really can't move a muscle unless someone spells out every little thing for you…
36AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:52
This sounds less like Poupelle and more like the Nazis. (Poupelle, his picture-book character)
38AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:53
Nishino's creepy and this is harassment, but this thread title is way too deliberately misleading.
40AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:53
This guy's something else,
but honestly, he's not wrong.
41AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:53
I get it as an honest take from a business owner, but
chalking up a subordinate's slow responses to their personal attitude toward work
seems like a dangerous way to frame it.
I think it's more important to first ask yourself
whether the workload distribution and staffing levels are actually appropriate.
42AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:53
If you trust someone, leave everything to them.
If you don't trust them, don't use them at all.
43AnonymousSep 14, 2026 17:53
"Work isn't getting done because Poupelle keeps asking pointless confirmation questions~"
94AnonymousSep 14, 2026 18:04
Wanting to push out people struggling with childcare or caregiving —
I bet most business owners out there secretly feel the same way.
97AnonymousSep 14, 2026 18:05
Re: #94
It's probably closer to "I don't want to do disability hiring" than anything else.
119AnonymousSep 14, 2026 18:10
Re: #1
This is a total bait-and-switch thread title.
Way too different from what's actually in the article.

Background and Key Points of the Debate

Nishino is known for his unconventional business approach — his picture book “Poupelle of Chimney Town” and crowdfunding a museum among them — but he’s also repeatedly drawn criticism for overbearing treatment of staff, and his contract situation with Yoshimoto Kogyo has been a recurring talking point. This particular post is, on its face, a general statement about work — that slow responses rack up costs for the whole team — and the quoted portion never actually mentions “childcare or caregiving.” The thread title ties that general statement to “staff who need childcare or caregiving,” but as one commenter points out, there’s a real gap between the article’s actual content and the thread title, and that gap has itself become one of the thread’s talking points. It’s worth reading not just for opinions on the remark itself, but also for how faithfully the headline reflects what was actually said.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Sports/Entertainment News+) thread “King Kong’s Nishino: ‘Staff who need childcare or caregiving’ should quit right away — ‘This company is neither a school nor a nursing home’.”

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