Mar 27 (soranews24.com) - On 20 March, Kumamoto Police announced the punishment of a sergeant in his fifties for incidents of "power harassment" against several lower ranking officers. As a result his pay will be docked 10 percent for three months.
The incidents took place between September of 2015 and October of last year and included cases of the sergeant hitting officers on top of their helmet with an LED light baton, like the kind used to guide traffic at night. Other complaints included forcing subordinates to eat spicy instant noodles.
At one point an officer in their 20s required several days off to recover from complaints of poor health. In a survey conducted last October the sergeant admitted to his deed, saying "The intention was to guide them. I went too far."
Readers of the news weren't overly concerned with the level of harassment, as prepacked Japanese instant noodles (or any Japanese food for that matter) tends to not be all that spicy in the grand scheme of things.
However, everyone was mystified by what lesson the sergeant thought he was teaching through his piquant peppers.