Meaning of “CusHara(カスハラ)”

“CusHara(カスハラ)” is an abstraction for “customer harassment(カスタマーハラスメント)” which means customer abuse or abusive customer behavior.
In Japan, the mindset that “the customer is god” has been deeply rooted for a long time, so service providers usually treat customers with extreme politeness. However, this has had a negative effect—some people act arrogantly, saying things like, “I’m the customer, how dare you treat me like that!” This kind of behavior has become a growing problem.

Both “abuse” and “harassment” are often referred to as “harassment” in Japanese-English.
In Japan, many types of “harassment” have been defined in recent years.
For example, “MataHara(マタハラ)” is one of them.
It’s an abstraction for “maternity harassment(マタニティハラスメント)” which means pregnancy discrimination or pregnancy harassment.

Example Conversation

A: Working in the service industry must be tough. I bet there are “CusHara(カスハラ)” people.
B: Oh, totally. There are guys who act all high and mighty and bark orders at you.

A: サービス業って大変だよね。カスハラするやつとかいそう。
B: いるよー。まじで偉そうに命令してくるおっさんとかいるからね。