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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.
Unless you're black... Then the cops just shoot you dead for stealing $20... or even less.
This planet makes no logical sense. We elevate sports people to godhood while scientists and teachers are vilified. We make TV celebrities out of people with sex tapes, but can't show the sex tape on TV. Everything is topsey-turvey, forwards is backwards, up is down. Steal a billion and you're promoted, steal a loaf of bread and you're a thug. When corporations don't pay taxes, that's just good business, but when people don't pay taxes they are welfare cheats. I do not understand this world.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
True. I lived in Japan for a couple of years and this is what I took away:
- The Japanese see themselves not merely as individuals, but as a collective
- The Japanese culture is steeped in honor and tradition, and you (particular Japanese) don't want to be the one to throw the cat in among the pigeons
- Individuality is not seen the same as in the West (they see our way and think selfish)
- Trite, but there is no "I" in team, and this is borne out in how the Japanese approach team building and why they are good at what they do
Japan's biggest threat, economically, is South Korea, who while different culturally, have very similar outlooks on individual and team ethics.
Japan is a beautiful country with beautiful people. I loved my time there and think of it often. Oh, and did I mention the food...