Financial Times (July 23)
The Toshiba and Olympus accounting scandals suggest “that Japanese companies are prone to manipulating their accounts. But foreign investors should not give up and go home.” Instead investors have an opportunity to “short shares in companies that will be struck by scandal next, to buy those that will be forced to change their ways, or to do both these things in turn.”
Tags: Accounting, Investors, Japan, Olympus, Opportunity, Scandals, Short, Toshiba
San Francisco Chronicle (June 30)
Japan’s Supreme Court “ruled in favor of a whistleblower for the first time.” The case involved Masaharu Hamada, 51, who was demoted after raising issues at Olympus Corporation. The Supreme Court “sealed the victory of the little ‘salaryman’ against a giant of Japan Inc.” The Chronicle reports Japan only has “a handful” of whistleblowers because “they are treated as outcasts…. So abhorred is the employee who dares to question the company.”
Tags: Japan, Olympus, Salaryman, Supreme Court, Whistleblower
Bloomberg (November 8)
“As China’s might increases, India’s influence flowers, South Korea grows more competitive and Indonesia booms, Japan’s standing is waning faster than Tokyo realizes.” Can Japan adapt? First it will need to abandon the “head-in-the-sand dynamic,” characteristic of the recent Olympus scandal, “that many investors had hoped was a thing of Japan’s past.”
“As China’s might increases, India’s influence flowers, South Korea grows more competitive and Indonesia booms, Japan’s standing is waning faster than Tokyo realizes.” Can Japan adapt? First it will need to abandon the “head-in-the-sand dynamic,” characteristic of the recent Olympus scandal, “that many investors had hoped was a thing of Japan’s past.”