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Toshiba CEO, 8 Others, Resign Over $1.2 Billion Accounting Cover-Up
The BBC reports that Toshiba president and chief executive Hisao Tanaka, along with vice-chairman Norio Sasaki, former chief executive Atsutoshi Niched, and six other executives, has resigned from the company in the wake of an accounting scandal: On Monday, an independent panel appointed by Toshiba said the firm had overstated its operating profit by a total of 151.8bn yen ($1.22bn, £780m).
The overstatement was roughly triple an initial estimate by Toshiba. Asia Times has an article that delves into the pressure which drove Tanaka and others to misstate their revenue figures so drastically. From that piece:
Top management and the heads of in-house companies acted on “the shared goal of padding nominal profits,” the report said. President Hisao Tanaka and immediate predecessor Norio Sasaki, now vice chairman, denied intentionally delaying loss-booking, but those who worked below them thought they were being instructed to do so, according to the report. Top management would assign “challenges,” or earnings improvement targets, at monthly meetings with the heads of in-house companies and subsidiaries. These targets were especially aggressive in fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2012, when Sasaki was president. In-house company chiefs felt enormous pressure to meet the goals, the committee concluded.
After the announcement of Tanaka's resignation, the company's stock actually rose six percent. CNBC explains:
Getting the bad news out appears to have eased investors' concerns about the stock.
"The total problem has been quantified and there's a likely chance the CEO will have to quit. That's been seen as the end of that," said Amir Anvarzadeh, director of Japan equity sales at BGC Securities.
resign?
And then a million people (men, women, children, civilians all) died when the only atomic weapons used in combat were dropped on them. I'd say that balances out Pearl Harbor a bit. I don't think they "got away" with anything.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
What happened on Okinawa between April and June of 1945 was a foreshadowing of what would have happened if the main island of Japan was invaded. Hirohito thought the allies wouldn't dare invade the main island because of the losses they would suffer; he didn't care about Japanese losses. When the atomic bombs were dropped he realized that the Allies could crush him without significant losses. That ended WWII.
"Yep, those civilians were totally to blame for Pearl Harbor. They deserved to die."
Others have spoken to the military targets near, and what other options there were, and I think to the point that the nuclear bombs did not cause the most casualties, and are only the most memorable.
But, further,
A, the guys at Pearl Harbor, and all the other places people died in the early stages of the war,
were they responsible for the issues that made Japan feel like an attack was a good idea?
Did they deserve to die? Did they deserve to die as they did? ( read about the Bataan death march, among other atrocities )
( noted that this does not make the civilians in Japan deserving of death, particularly )
B, how else would you have proceeded in the political leadership of America's place?
What do you think they should have done instead?
A bit of a rhetorical question, but seriously posed.
If you think about responding with "negotiate", i'm going to suggest more reading/research on your part.
Civilians jumped off cliffs during the invasion of Okinawa.
Japanese soldiers were still found on Pacific islands, waiting for the return of the victorious Japanese on into the 1970's
( my point being how fanatical some could be coming out of that society )
emt 377 emt 4