Toshiba colluded with ministry to undermine shareholders, probe finds

Is it possible something similar with Nissan?

Shocking News?: “a J Corp colluded with J Gov”.

All Japanese companies cook the books and publish false accounts. Anyone read Dogs and Demons?

I don't know why Japanese firms continue to seek foreign investors ?? They should just do on there own if they are not willing to share power! You can't have it both ways, you either stand alone and stay local, or get foreign funds and share power.

Make up your mind.

And there will not be ANY punishment fir Suga....He will continue his daily routine of doing nothing.

Another Nissan or is Nissan another Toshiba?

Time for investors to strike back!

Is Suga going to complain about a tummy ache, so he can step down, too?

Yoshihide Suga is on pace to be one of Japan's most incompetent corrupt politicians.

How about looking at who's behind him?

Foreign investors should run away before the j-justice gets involved.

They can jail you for 130+ days with no accusation.

Why is anyone surprised? Japan Inc has been "colluding" with the government for like forever!

I am still confused how Suga has not stepped down yet. I feel like every single month, he is involved in a new scandal.

I don't know why Japanese firms continue to seek foreign investors 

Maybe because the Japanese are among the most aggressive and biggest "foreign investors" in overseas markets? Take a look at Softbank, for one. The Japanese love "globalization," but only when it's a one-way street.

Governments in other countries protect domestic companies specializing in key, sensitive technologies from falling into the hands of foreign vultures.?"

No they don't. Britain did nothing to block the sale of ARM, the world's must influential semiconductor company, to Japan's Softbank, which now wants to hand it off NVIDEA, a US multinational.

More positive publicity for japan before the olympics

The foreigner gets screwed, now where have I heard that before from a large Japanese company with lies to the government?

Saving a dying corporation for the sake of empty pride and the hubris of elite bureaucrats, while Japan can rack billions in tax profits if there is a merger&acquisition. ONLY IN JAPAN!

The Japanese government has been trying to make it easier or more attractive for foreign companies to come and set up operations here, but any sane entity would stay the hell away.

Yep. Japanese elites still stuck in the 19th-century mentality of "zero-sum game". They obsessed with keeping big companies as political dynasties instead of profitable businesses. Meanwhile, their Asian peers are more profit-driven, entrepreneurial, and adaptive to the world. Chinese and Southeast Asian billionaires/millionaires create successful enterprises to sell away on M&A tables or list on the stocks exchange at high prices, then they sell those enterprises to start an even more successful one.

Japan does not have this mentality, and this is why they are losing to their Asian peers badly.

Maybe because the Japanese are among the most aggressive and biggest "foreign investors" in overseas markets? Take a look at Softbank, for one. The Japanese love "globalization," but only when it's a one-way street.

Almost all of those foreign acquisitions end in failures.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/08/20/editorials/learning-overseas-ma-cases-went-wrong/

All overseas acquisitions are financed by the Japanese declining A+ credit rating (Japanese taxpayer revenues as well, look at the case of TOLL and Japan Post) - the Big Three are going to downgrade Japan this year or next to one. If Olympics does not get commenced, Japan's credit rating will slide even worse. The US turns a blind eye to Japanese contradictory practices of abuse because the Japanese elites keep buying American worthless T-assets every year.

Why do foreign investors continue to invest in Japan? Have we not already learned the downside of investing in Japan?

@Andrew

The Cambridge Research Laboratory of Toshiba Europe made a great breakthrough on quantum data transfer.

Cambridge, as in Cambridge University, as in England, as in not Japan. Tell me how a Toshiba is going to keep this from "falling into the hands of foreign vultures", when it's the "vultures" breakthrough. More like; "I hope the foreign vultures share their breakthrough with the living gods, known to us common scum as, the Japanese" /s

One can only dream andrew.

Loathful hubris.

This is further proof that Japan is corrupt to its core.

A public company should work in the interests of its shareholders, not collude with the government to screw them over.

Surely this contravenes rules regarding being a public company, and should put the company in danger of being delisted. I know that won't happen, because it's Toshiba and this is Japan.

The Japanese government has been trying to make it easier or more attractive for foreign companies to come and set up operations here, but any sane entity would stay the hell away.

The government has so many fingers in so many pies, that there's not much room for pie. At the first sign of any problems, or any disadvantage to a Japanese competitor, the Japanese government has shown it has no issues getting involved with the intention of screwing the foreigner - be it the CEO, or the investors.

JCoruption - its everywhere!

Now I expect J-prosecutors to act swiftly, arrest several suspect and keep them for months to prevent them from altering evidence!

Suga is such a spineless, weak old man the he is actually starting to make me respect Abe a little. No doubt Suga will lament taking the flak for his actions on this -- not on the actions themselves.

Suga: "I am absolutely not aware of that. There was nothing of that sort."

Well that settles it.

Just sold all my shares in the JP indices today. Why would anyone support such a blatantly corrupt system that is so anti-foreign investor. Corporate governance will only change when starved of financial resources.

I'm shocked. Shocked . . .

If you're pulling tricks to deprive shareholders of their rights, you're engaging in theft.

I understand the concern about scary foreign capital, but if you don't want to give control, don't go public in the first place, or let the J Govt buy up a load of your stock. Don't go about it in a dishonest way.

Suga: I am absolutely not aware of that. There was nothing of that sort.

READ MY LIPS.

This sort of reminds me of the Olympus scandal of 2011.

In Japan, companies don’t belong to shareholders.

The concept of holding shares in companies was imported to Japan, and adopted to local culture, but like democracy, Japan doesn’t really “get it”.

I had funds in JP indices too, after initially being optimistic on the reform angle that Abe promised, but ditched it for S&P 500 several years back, but recently switched to plain global indices (ex-Japan) after Biden’s election and recent policy suggestions. The Congress is holding it up so I might not have jumped so soon, but anyway.

Not really impressed by leadership in any of the major economies today.

But Japan? Pfft.

The collusion with Nissan and the govt to get Ghosn, and then this… happy to live here, but happy to be fully invested overseas thanks.

Every time I hear Toshiba I'm reminded of their CoCom violation. Not good for their brand when it's always related to some corruption scandal.

Suga is such a spineless, weak old man the he is actually starting to make me respect Abe a little. No doubt Suga will lament taking the flak for his actions on this -- not on the actions themselves.

Tend to agree with you, he's weaker than a paper bag in a thyphoon, he is surrounded in curruption and has his head in the sand.

Tell me that some of the opposition party leaders are preparing a strong message about fighting corruption in the upcoming elections. Even though some people will say it's part of Japanese society, then I will say that the last couple of years should be fueling a popular/populist desire to wage some form of war against corruption more than ever before.

Old companies run by dinosaurs just can't compete anymore with newer more progressive companies. These dinosaurs, who don't know hardship, should just hand down the reigns to younger people.

Dinosaurs will crash and burn this country if we let them stay in the driver seat. One thing they didn't learn from their parents, who grew up during the war, is how to adapt to the changing world. Dinosaurs are the reason Japan is still stuck in the 80s.

And that is how business is done in Asia.

Japan Subculture Research Center had a terrific piece about this a couple weeks ago.

Nothing new.

Why is this not in the crime section and instead in the business section or is

it because it is business as usual.

Not surprised, bureaucrats work for J-inc and not the J-people.

My only surprise is that there are a lot of people even here who think government doesn't lie.

“Does this SURPRISE You”?…(as spoken in that James Bond movie)

In the 1980s, the US government destroyed Toshiba's semiconductor division.

In 2013, it destroyed Als*om's nuclear division in France.

Currently, they are trying to destroy Hu*wei.

In the 1980s, the US government destroyed Toshiba's semiconductor division.

Toshiba sold classified machine tooling and the necessary computer controls to the USSR from 1981-84. Toshiba falsified part numbers and model numbers on the equipment they sold to avoid export controls. I don't know if there is any truth to your claim that somehow the US government "destroyed Toshiba's semiconductor division". Such claims one reads on boards like this are usually either wildly exaggerated or outright false, but if indeed the US government did that then good for them. Those milling machines and other high tech computer controlled machines they sold them allowed the Soviets to make submarine propellers that were much quieter than anything the Soviet kludge could produce. It set western navies including the JMSDF back a decade in terms of the quietness advantage US and Japanese subs enjoyed over their Soviet counterparts. Soviet subs were much harder to detect afterwards. eeIt was at the time considered the greatest setback the west suffered at that point in the Cold War. Some of you weren't alive then but I was on the pointy end back then and remember it well. The Soviets had a lot of subs back then and ASW was serious business. JMSDF was and still is considered to be one of the best ASW forces in the world and the Toshiba affair became a serious point of contention between Japan and the US.

MarkToday 08:09 am JST

I don't know why Japanese firms continue to seek foreign investors ?? They should just do on there own if they are not willing to share power! You can't have it both ways, you either stand alone and stay local, or get foreign funds and share power.

Make up your mind.

Lol, that's been Japan's basic dilemma since St. Francis Xavier showed up in the 16th century

I am still confused how Suga has not stepped down yet. I feel like every single month, he is involved in a new scandal.

What else is new with politicians.

Definitely something fishy going on here, but also convenient for the opposition that the current prime minister was somehow involved. Not really sure I'm buying that, but we'll see.

Lobbying, influencing is part of the deal.

Is it possible something similar with Nissan?

As for Nissan, it was also a case of plea bargaining from a lower employee against Kelly at least.

Since this law was enacted in Japan, it has been 3 cases of plea bargaining

All Japanese companies cook the books and publish false accounts. Anyone read Dogs and Demons?

A) This incident isn't about a Japanese company cooking the books or publishing false accounts (though in fairness, Toshiba has done both). Its about the government pressuring institutional shareholders to vote a certain way in a shareholders meeting.

B) Dogs and Demons is a nice book, but its about 20 years old and its written by an art collector who doesn't really have much knowledge of corporate governance.

If you're pulling tricks to deprive shareholders of their rights, you're engaging in theft.

I'm not actually sure the government has done anything illegal here. Its a fine distinction, but important in legal terms since they didn't actually try to deprive the shareholders of any rights (which would be illegal, ie preventing them from voting at all), they instead applied pressure to make the shareholders exercise their rights in a certain way (which I think is legal, at least in terms of corporate law, though they might have violated some rules on what public servants can/can't do).

I don't think its something the government should be doing since it conflicts with a lot of principles about good corporate governance, etc, but at the same time you'll note there is no mention of any lawsuits or other legal fallout happening as a result.

Governments in other countries protect domestic companies specializing in key, sensitive technologies from falling into the hands of foreign vultures. Is that shocking news?