Kurumi Otake was 22 years old and had just evacuated the AEON Mall in Kumamoto, Japan, when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the building on July 28. She was safe outside. Then her employer, Habita Inc., asked her to go back inside to put the day’s sales money in a safe.
She was not the only one. Another worker received the same order. Minutes later, an explosion erupted inside the mall and both died. In total, seven people lost their lives that day in the mall alone, and 38 across the Kumamoto region.
On Sunday, two Habita executives went to Kurumi’s wake. They apologized to her family and admitted that the instruction to return was a mistake. Sales director Goji Yuse acknowledged it publicly: it was inappropriate, he said. But Kurumi’s mother, through tears, responded with the words that no corporate apology can erase: her daughter will never come back.
