An office prank went horribly wrong in Japan when a man allegedly killed his co-worker by shooting compressed air into his rear end.
The two men, who worked at an industrial manufacturing plant in Ibaraki Tsukuba City, Japan, were playing around while on a break around 5 p.m. on Friday, July 13, reported Asia Times .
Yoshiyuki Yoshida reportedly thought it would be funny if he took an air compressor, placed the nozzle between Akio Ishimaru’s buttocks, and then blasted wind into his workmate’s body.
A few minutes after being rectally filled with air, Ishimaru began to feel sick. Another colleague called emergency services, and an ambulance was sent to the plant. He was quickly taken to the hospital, but the 46-year-old man did not survive.
“I just did it as a prank,” 34-year-old Yoshida reportedly said in his confession to the Ibaraki Prefecture Ryugasaki Police, according to Asia Times .
“I didn’t think he could possibly die from that.”
Yoshida was arrested for the alleged murder one day later, on Saturday, July 14.
“It was a tragic accident, but not the first of its kind,” said a spokesman for the Ryugasaki Police Department.
“The air compressor was pushed up against the anus, over clothing, not directly into the cavity, and the release of the air into the body probably damaged the lungs, causing death. We are waiting for the results of an autopsy, which is still being scheduled.”
Oddly, this is not the first time that a person has died from having compressed air shot into his bum as a prank.
Asia Times said two men at an industrial waste disposal factory were charged with assault resulting in death in December, 2017, after accidentally killing their 44-year-old co-worker with an anal blast, and in January, 2018, a 28-year-old student also died after his friend used an air-duster gun in his derriere.
Japan’s Self-Defense Force members even pranked one another with backside blasts from air compressors back in 2013. Luckily, there were no fatalities, but some soldiers were seriously wounded.
And, this past March, the U.K.’s Metro reported that Ravinder, a 40-year-old factory worker in India, died from internal hemorrhaging and organ damage after his colleague, Anjan Misra, inserted an air compressor into his rear end after he bent over to pick up an item on the floor. As his co-workers laughed, Ravinder collapsed. He died later that day after being taken to the hospital for treatment.
One of the reasons why the Japanese may be obsessed with shooting things into another person’s butt is because of a popular childhood game called “kancho,” according to Asia Times .
“Kancho,” which comes from the Japanese word for enema, is yelled by children after they use their hands and fingers to form an imaginary gun, which they then stick into an unsuspecting friend’s anus — just for fun.