Summer break in Japan, with no work scheduled during an 18 day period, American ALT Brad Thompson took the opportunity to return home for ten days to see family and friends. Meanwhile, his Japanese school attempted to reach him to offer support for students preparing for the upcoming Fall English contest. FLEXAction Dispatch LTD tried repeatedly, calling his Japanese phone and sending a couple of emails without reply. When those efforts failed, employee Koguma Reina San visited his home, also met with silence. Disappointed by his absence, and no more information from the neighborhood, and after five days without word, they conclude that for such a long absence, it couldn’t be considered as vacations: the head of the placement agency escalated the matter by traveling from his personal office in Atami to the Chiyoda Tokyo Headquarters of the company and urgently contacting the FBI.
The fallout was severe: 200,000 yen in driver fees to transport the agency boss for FBI calls, students traumatized by rampant disappearance rumors, prompting the school to provide psychological support, and the PTA demanding 100 million yen in compensation. A somewhat disillusioned Brad subsequently left teaching and now works cleaning netrooms, mangacafe rooms and emergency stairwells for the company Chachacha in Shinjuku, attempting to repay his debts.
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