Lufthansa fires gay Japanese flight attendant
A Japanese man who worked as a flight attendant for the German airline Lufthansa has been fired after having a high school boy visit him in a hotel:
Shinichi ‘Toshi’ Uto, aged 40 and a Japanese national, has the support of his trade union VERDI in a case of unfair dismissal against the airline to be heard in Frankfurt early next month.
Mr. Uto was arrested by police on September 10 under suspicion of illegal prostitution at the hotel used by Lufthansa cabin crew.
But when it was realised that Mr. Uto’s boy friend was 17, the “charge” became an illegal sexual act.
In Tokyo, the age of consent is 18. But, Mr. Uto told UK Gay News that in his home province in Japan the age of consent was 16, as it is in most of Japan.”
The incident was reported as a crime by the Japanese media, with some headlines prominently announcing the criminal as a Lufthansa employee. The airline says it fired Uto because his action harmed the image of Lufthansa in Japan.
The employee’s association of Lufthansa flight attendants has criticized the airline’s decision to fire Uto (emphasis added):
“It is hard to imagine that the whole story would be considered to be harmful to the public image of Lufthansa in Japan, if the flight attendant had been with a 17-year-old female,” the staff group fumed in its newsletter.
“We wonder, if our German employer will do anything to protect its staff members abroad and will defend the values of the German constitution even in foreign media or will rather support a local attitude of discrimination in order to defend its economic interest.”
“Lufthansa never advised its flight attendants of this exception in Tokyo,” the flight attendant’s staff association’s newsletter says.
[hat tip to reader]
