Japanese retailer Aeon says staff allowed to re-enter quake-hit mall before blast despite ban
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Takashi Kimura (right), governor of Kumamoto prefecture, bows as he lays flowers outside the damaged Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima, Kumamoto prefecture, on Aug 11.
PHOTO: AFP
- Aeon allowed employees to re-enter the quake-hit Kumamoto mall despite rules banning evacuees, leading to seven worker deaths in a subsequent blast.
- The quake caused some staff to be stranded at work, prompting them to retrieve valuables and close cash registers against company policy.
- Aeon will revise rules to let employees keep valuables while working, addressing gaps in procedures for post-evacuation situations, said president Akio Yoshida.
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Major Japanese retailer Aeon said on Aug 11 that employees were allowed to re-enter a quake-hit mall in Kumamoto prefecture despite a company rule barring evacuees from doing so, and seven workers were subsequently killed in a blast at the facility in late July.
The retailer said on-site personnel at Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima allowed employees to go back in, after they asked to retrieve valuables such as car keys and mobile phones and to close cash registers following the powerful earthquake.
The magnitude-7.1 quake, which registered the maximum level of 7 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale in some areas in the south-western prefecture on July 28, left some employees who drove to work unable to return home.
Aeon said its rules and drills had not covered post-evacuation cases involving personal belongings or employees unable to leave after commuting by car, adding that the absence of procedures left such decisions to on-site personnel.
The retail giant said it will revise its rules to allow employees to keep valuables with them while working. Aeon president Akio Yoshida said at a press conference on July 29 that internal rules barred evacuees from re-entering buildings. KYODO NEWS