A routine instruction turned fatal after two workers went back into a shopping mall damaged by a powerful earthquake to secure cash. Their deaths have raised painful questions about workplace safety and decisions made during emergencies.
Two workers who lost their lives in a deadly explosion inside a shopping mall in Japan were asked by their employer to return to the building after a powerful earthquake to secure money from a cash register, the company has admitted.
The explosion happened at Aeon Mall in Kumamoto Prefecture about an hour after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the region on 28 July, killing 38 people. Seven of the victims died at the shopping centre.
One of the workers has been identified as 22-year-old Kurumi Otake. The identity of the second employee has not been released.
According to Otake’s family, she had safely evacuated the mall after the earthquake and met a relative outside. However, she said she had to return because her company instructed her to move cash from the register into a safe.
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The account was later confirmed by two representatives of her employer, Habita, who attended her wake and apologised to the family.
“The instructions given at the time were inappropriate, and I truly regret them,” Habita sales director Goji Yuse said, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Looking back, Yuse admitted the decision should never have been made.
“It was not worth a life,” he said.
Most shoppers and staff had already evacuated after the earthquake, but some employees remained inside when a powerful explosion tore through the building.
Kurumi’s family described her as a caring young woman with a strong sense of responsibility. After losing her father three years ago, she helped support her mother and family.
“If she hadn’t gone back inside the store at that time, Kurumi would still be with her family today,” a relative said.
Her grieving mother could only say: “My daughter is not coming back.”
Habita, a retail chain founded in 1976 that operates more than 10 stores across several Japanese prefectures, said it is reviewing what happened as investigations into the explosion continue.
