Japanese Businessman Loses Entire City’s Personal Data After Passing Out Drunk On A Tuesday Night

Who hasn’t gone all out for the random Tuesday night bender and hit the sake a little too hard after a tough start to the work week? Plenty of us.

When narrowing down that field to the workers who have also passed out on the street and lost a flash drive containing the personal information of nearly 500,000 people, the herd thins out a little bit. 

But according to Vice, that’s exactly what happened to one Japanese businessman in his 40s this past week. He ventured out for drinks in Osaka prefecture’s industrial Amagasaki city before waking up, hours later, on the street.

His bag – containing his USB drive with the sensitive information he was carrying around – was missing. The drive was encrypted, the report says, and contained the personal data of Amagasaki’s 465,177 residents.

Among the information included about the residents was dates of birth, addresses, bank account numbers, and tax details. The man was working for a company called BIPROGY, who was hired by the local government to seek out who was eligible for tax exemptions. 

The company put out a statement this week, telling the local press: “We deeply apologize to the citizens of Amagasaki, the city of Amagasaki, and all concerned for the inconvenience caused by the loss of important information entrusted to us.”

The drive was eventually found on Friday, but not before angering many of the city’s residents. The local city office received more than 30,000 calls in one day related to the incident, the report says. 

And who says there’s no happy endings? Vice, citing NHK, said the employee found his bag and the drive “near an apartment building he vaguely recalls passing by during his night out”. 

If you think Tuesday’s bender was bad, just wait for the weekend…