In what’s no doubt one of the weirder lawsuits to come before the Japanese judicial system this summer, the Osaka High Court was recently tasked with deciding where the responsibility lies in an incident in which a ghost had its jaw broken by a karate master.
The karate expert in Japan who broke the haunted house worker’s jaw with a kick in 2011 has lost his lawsuit against an amusement park.
The man, who admitted to drinking before entering the haunted house at Toei Kyoto Studio Park in Kyoto in 2011 while travelling with his colleagues, had argued that the park should have warned visitors that humans acted as ghosts and it should have protected its staff better.
The karate expert was startled when a park worker, dressed as a ghost, stepped forward to frighten him. The man, who has not been named, kicked the “ghost” in the face and later said it was a reflex.
The worker filed a lawsuit seeking compensation.
A settlement was reached in 2015 when the karate expert agreed to pay 10 million yen (£52,534) in damages.
He later filed his own lawsuit against the theme park’s managing company, arguing that they were responsible for the incident as well and should cover a portion of the damages he had agreed to pay.
The karate man based this claim on four factors:
- There was no partition or physical barrier between the “ghost” and guests
- The park had failed to train its employees to avoid attacks from customers
- The park failed to adequately inform customers that the haunted house contained human workers acting as ghosts
- The park should have prohibited the man from entering the haunted house because he had been drinking
But the Osaka High Court last month ruled his kick was an overreaction, dismissing his claim that the park was partly responsible for the incident.
The court said the man’s kick that broke the worker’s jaw “went beyond the scope of a reflexive action taken out of sheer fear”.
The “ghosts” were the main attraction of the park and they never physically attacked anybody, the court said. So, there was no need for any customer to use physical violence.
“While it is true that the aim of the staff portraying the ghosts is to surprise customers, this is done with the understood principle that the haunted house is something that can be safely enjoyed,” the court said.
“Unlike within the story of a movie or TV show, the ‘ghosts’ are not actually attacking the customers, so there is no need for them to physically fight back.”
The court said “it is difficult to find any justifiable motive or logical rationale” for the karate expert’s actions.
