I'll be vague here to avoid spoiling the ending, but is it common for people to receive the punishment given at the end (being forced to sit in an office with no work)?
I can't find any information about it.
i have an 'empty' office. but i have never been to it. it is only empty b/c i have never worked in it.
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
Think of a go-nowhere, have no future kind of job...
Perhaps it's a humiliation more than anything else. i understand that the Japanese culture weighs heavily on the value of saving face.... or "honour".
Templeton_Pecker is right. Japanese culture is based mostly on Tang Dynasty Confucian politics so the idea of keeping up an appearance and preserving your communal standing is very important.
Another reason why the "window seat" punishment is so scalding is because Japanese business and society is all about upward mobility, always accumulating more and moving up the ladder at any cost. Being denied the ability to advance is deny them any greater standing in the community.
"Bulls**t MR.Han Man!!"--Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon
True, also keep in mind that if you're an old-school Japanese, you join a keiretsu for life. The application process is utterly hardcore, they rarely fire anybody, and most executives get shifted between divisions every few years to keep things interesting. So this is how they deal with employees that have majorly screwed up.
They're starting to lighten up but it'll still be a while before the younger, more cosmopolitian generation work their way up the ladder far enough to be making major changes.