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The story
On October 7, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education announced it had dismissed a 31-year-old head teacher at a public middle school in Ota Ward. The dismissal stems from an incident last October in which he stole two bags of rice (worth a combined 9,676 yen) from a convenience store in Tokyo. He has reportedly admitted to the facts, saying he “stole it because I’d run out of money.” The case was reported as occurring amid a surge in rice prices dubbed the “Reiwa Rice Riot,” and on 5ch, discussion centered on speculation about his motive and on whether the punishment was too harsh given how small the stolen amount was.
Middle School Teacher Fired for Stealing Two Bags of Rice from Convenience Store, Says “I Stole It Because I’d Run Out of Money”… Tokyo Board of Education : Yomiuri Shimbun
Amid a surge in rice prices dubbed the “Reiwa Rice Riot,” the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education on the 7th dismissed a male head teacher (31) at a public middle school in Ota Ward for stealing two bags of rice from a convenience store.
According to the announcement, the head teacher stole two bags of rice (worth a combined 9,676 yen) from the same convenience store in Tokyo on October 7 and 17 of last year. He has reportedly admitted to the facts, saying, “I stole it because I’d run out of money.”
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Maybe he blew it on the sex trade or funding his favorite idol ('oshi-katsu' fan spending).
No way a 31-year-old makes that much, idiot.
Seems like he'd get caught right away.
Convenience stores probably have fewer blind spots than supermarkets…
Was it a self-checkout place and he just didn't scan it and walked off?
It's a disciplinary dismissal, so he must've been full-time…
What a wild era we live in.
If he weren't full-time he wouldn't be listed as 'kyoyu' (teacher).
Contract staff are listed as 'koshi' (instructor).
Even a guy like this can become a head teacher?
The teaching profession is finished.
Maybe becoming a head teacher comes with more expenses?
Like treating junior teachers to meals.
Plus apparently he makes about 200,000 yen more a year than a regular teacher, lol.
A convenience store with just one unmotivated part-timer on shift
probably seemed easier to steal from than a supermarket.
Something that obvious gets noticed from any angle — that's not shoplifting, that's robbery.
He was probably so hungry his brain wasn't getting enough sugar to think straight.
At 31 he's part of the 'Yutori' generation, not Gen Z.
and his retirement payout would've run into the tens of millions of yen.
Must be rough being an ordinary person.
In recent years there's been a trend of shrinking or scrapping retirement payouts to funnel more into monthly and starting salaries.
I heard even civil servants' payouts are trending down.
Apparently down by about 5 million yen.
Is he single?
Maybe his wife handed him 10,000 yen to buy rice and he blew it all on pachinko or something.
In your 30s, take-home pay is probably only in the 200,000-yen range.
If he's got two kids who each eat 5 go a day, even if he and his wife survive on nothing but water, it won't last a week — and that's not even counting side dishes.
Every other expense flies away even faster, like 10,000-yen bills sprouting wings, but what really backs you into a corner in the end is always the rice.
To survive — no, to keep his family alive — this public servant did something reckless. Who among us can really blame him?
I know I couldn't.
He probably just went for something that's easy to resell for cash.
The question is whether that level of treatment even measures up globally.
So what'd he spend it all on, lol?
Pachinko
Sex industry
FX trading
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
It’s not unusual for local government employees to be dismissed even over minor theft, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has a track record of taking a hard line on misconduct. Here too, many commenters on the thread expressed surprise that the punishment was so severe given how small the amount was — two bags of rice worth under 10,000 yen. At the same time, no facts about his motive have been made public beyond his own explanation, so the thread’s guesses about spending it on the sex industry, gambling, or fan (‘oshi’) activities remain just that — unsubstantiated speculation. Some tied the case to the rice-price surge dubbed the “Reiwa Rice Riot,” but since the details of his personal finances haven’t been disclosed, it would be premature to generalize too far from a single case. Many comments also pointed to head teachers’ relatively high pay, but that too is secondhand information without confirmed backing.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “Middle School Teacher Fired for Stealing Two Bags of Rice from Convenience Store, Says “I Stole It Because I’d Run Out of Money”… Tokyo.”
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