Japan’s ENEOS sacks president for hugging woman while drunk

Japanese oil giant ENEOS Holdings said Tuesday it had dismissed its president over “inappropriate behaviour” in which he hugged a woman while drunk, a year after the chairman stepped down over sexual abuse.

President Takeshi Saito, 61, “hugged a woman who was present (at a social gathering) while intoxicated,” the company said in a statement.

ENEOS received a report to the company’s compliance hotline last month and conducted a probe with an external lawyer.

Saito, the vice president and another executive were present at the gathering, but the company did not reveal further details.

Saito was “unfit to serve as president,” ENEOS said, adding that part of his pay, including bonuses, would be returned.

The firm has been enhancing efforts on rights and compliance after what it calls “inappropriate behaviour” by a former chairman.

Last year, ENEOS announced that chairman Tsutomu Sugimori had resigned due to “personal reasons.”

But it admitted Sugimori sexually abused a hostess in southern Okinawa region following reports by the weekly Shukan Shincho magazine.

Sugimori, while drunk, touched the woman’s body, forced kisses and broke two breastbones as well as forcibly taking off her clothes, the reports said.

In Japan, where the #MeToo movement failed to gain much ground, just six percent of assault victims, men and women, went to the police, according to a 2021 government survey.

But earlier this month, three ex-soldiers were found guilty, though they received suspended sentences, for sexually assaulting a female colleague whose testimony sparked a rare public reckoning over sexual assault.