Japanese company apologises on TV after worker left desk for lunch break

The apology for the scandal was broadcast on local TV. Photo / Supplied

A Japanese water company has apologised to customers and docked a worker's pay after he was caught leaving his desk for a lunch break.

A 64-year-old male staff member at the Kobe City Waterworks Bureau on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan, took approximately 78 minutes of lunch break over the course of seven months.

But his employers took a dim view of his antics, arguing that he had frittered away company time in the pursuit of food.

Several of the water company's high ranking officials appeared in the public broadcast earlier this month. Photo / Supplied

The trips to a nearby store, which took three minutes each time, took place a total of 26 times between September 2017 and March 2018.

"Are people not even allowed to go to the toilet now? This is like workplace slavery or something," one Twitter user wrote.

While another said: "The punishment is totally absurd – 26 times over a six-month period means he only left the office once a week."

"Absolutely ridiculous – arranging this formal apology with the press would've wasted more time than the three minutes he spent buying his lunch every now and then."

The case reignited a debate over the nature of Japanese work culture - where employees rarely take sick days and work incredibly long hours.

Nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have employees working more than 80 hours overtime a month, often unpaid, a recent survey found. And 12 per cent have employees breaking the 100 hours a month mark.

Workers are entitled to 20 days leave a year but currently about 35 per cent don't take any of it.