The Osaka Municipal Government was preparing Thursday to take disciplinary action against civil servants who refused to answer a survey on whether they have tattoos, as concern in and out of the city was growing that the questionnaire constituted a human rights violation.
Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who ordered the survey, has already threatened to deny promotions to any of the 33,500 municipal employees who refused to answer it. So far, 110 employees, including over 70 in the environmental department who work as garbage collectors, have admitted to having tattoos.
In the past, municipal sanitation workers typically had backgrounds as day laborers. During the 1970s, large numbers of city sanitation workers were also affiliated with yakuza in Nishinari Ward, a noted day laborer area. Many had tattoos and their successors today appear to be carrying on the tradition.