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Toshiba's No. 2 shareholder calls for immediate resignation of chairman, 3 directors

29 Comments
By Makiko Yamazaki

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“The revelations in the report "are deeply troubling and represent one of the most prominent and shocking corporate governance failures among large public companies anywhere in the world in the last decade," the 3D letter says.”

big surprise. In fact, this puts the CEO in line for a huge amakudari job and possibly a political future here. “Take responsibility?” Why? The Japan of old, where people would fall on the sword for their failures, is as dead as the samurai. These days it’s a shoulder shrug, a bow, and a “Vow to be transparent and have nothing more regrettable happen.”

14 ( +19 / -5 )

The ex ceo should be kept from leaving the country. His last ditch attempt to sell the company and take it off the stock market ( and silence the shareholders) to his ex employer, Blackstone at a bargain price, is a very transparent cover up.

12 ( +15 / -3 )

Toshiba will claim they don't understand Japanese business... And brush it all away... Very sad and illegal

16 ( +20 / -4 )

Wait...Is this a crime? If it is they should be charged..and the J-Gov't should be held accountable as well...

13 ( +15 / -2 )

With a 7.2% stake they have as much chances of calling an EGM, or a GM and then pass a Resolution calling for the Directors to resign, as Peppa pig flying.

I say to Toshiba:

a) Ignore them;

b) Send them packing

Keep Japan Japanese.

-22 ( +1 / -23 )

Can anyone else see a pattern here? Malfiance, colusion, nepotism, and straight up illegality and expecting to get away with dishonesty. It's endemic globally. An over mburdening

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Overburdening Sense of privelege

5 ( +6 / -1 )

So that’s a global strategy that’s gone bad. Need foreign investors? See how that goes?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Mr. Ghosn must be laughing all the way to the court house.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Who said Japanese companies do NOT colluded with government agencies ?

The reason Mr. Ghosn fled is because he has seen it first hand, and he knew he doesn't stand a chance of having a fair trial, Nissan framed him and wanted him out with the help of the these agencies.

I just hope that someday Mr. Ghosn will come back and have a fair trail so he can move on with his life.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

the thick plottens

6 ( +8 / -2 )

No mention of Suga’s involvement JT?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Toshiba been rotten for decades, wake up to the reality of it, now its making headlines again, its been bad for along long time !

6 ( +8 / -2 )

It's kind of minor compared to past Toshiba scandals. I mean, with the Toshiba-Kongsberg incident of the late 1980s, they secretly falsified records and sold nine axis milling machines to the Soviets for screw milling, which was one of the factors that enabled the Soviets to make their Akula and Sierra class submarines up to 100 times quieter than they had been before. Two Toshiba subsidiary employees were arrested and charged, and four executives resigned. Even the US Senate and House wanted a five year trade sanction against Toshiba, but Reagan rejected, in part due to intense Japanese lobbying.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1987/09/03/japan-tries-to-blunt-toshiba-scandal/2cbaa67d-5f01-49d3-ade5-0890fce7981a/

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Buyer beware. Did you expect anything else when taking a stake in a Japanese company as a foreign investor?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Toshiba shares are a strong sell.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

You want foreign money, you get influenced.

When the weak dinosaurs cling on to power, this is the result. The dinosaurs can't survive anymore. We need visionaries and innovators - like Son and Mikitani.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

With a 7.2% stake they have as much chances of calling an EGM, or a GM and then pass a Resolution calling for the Directors to resign, as Peppa pig flying.

I say to Toshiba:

a) Ignore them;

b) Send them packing

Keep Japan Japanese.

Peeping_TomToday 07:04 pm JST is right, they should've kept it Japanese and let it go bankupt instead of saving it by letting in foreigner investors and their money... It happened with Nissan, it's happening with Toshiba and will probably happen with another J.Corp. Foreigner investors should've learnt by now how it's done here.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The j-gov will protect the Japanese directives at all costs.

Toshiba will be another fiasco, same as Nissan and Olympus.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Jinc is not a democracy it’s a fascist state.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I guess Suga will get a tummy ache too, once they have their snap election right after the Olympics!

Who is next Aso?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Mr. Ghosn must be laughing all the way to the court house.

A Japanese court house, not a good thing for him. We'll see (after a decade or so investigation and litigation) how the Japanese courts treat this sort of conduct.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's kind of minor compared to past Toshiba scandals. I mean, with the Toshiba-Kongsberg incident of the late 1980s, they secretly falsified records and sold nine axis milling machines to the Soviets for screw milling, which was one of the factors that enabled the Soviets to make their Akula and Sierra class submarines up to 100 times quieter than they had been before.

I was active duty when that crime was exposed and it was like a very long and wide knife thrust deep into our backs by a nation we trusted as a close ally. Toshiba should have been banned from the US market forever.

But please stick to reality. It is an exaggeration to say the new propellers the Soviets were then able to produce made their subs "100 times quieter", but it did allow them to advance their quieting to a level equivalent to US and Japanese subs of the early to mid 1980s. By the time those subs emerged the US and Japanese had even quieter boats, but their advantage was not as great as before. Whereas before you could hear Soviet subs coming from a long distance off, after they obtained those milling machines they were much quieter. There is more to submarine quieting than the propeller however and their propulsion machinery and hull flow noises were still higher than the best US and Japanese subs.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

But please stick to reality. It is an exaggeration to say the new propellers the Soviets were then able to produce made their subs "100 times quieter"

The 100 times figure was from a variety of reports I read about the fiasco. I used the term, "which was one of the factors" because, as you mentioned, there is more to a submarine than its screws. Everything I've seen suggested that 'one of the factors, was the Toshiba milling machine. other factors were the Walker spy ring + Soviet independent advances.

"  In addition to the illegal acquisition of Western secrets, the Soviet Union has made new submarine advances on its own. Id. New Soviet attack submarines, named Mike, Sierra, and Akula, are 100 times quieter then the older Soviet submarines. Id."

https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1673&context=auilr

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

 In addition to the illegal acquisition of Western secrets, the Soviet Union has made new submarine advances on its own. Id. New Soviet attack submarines, named Mike, Sierra, and Akula, are 100 times quieter then the older Soviet submarines. Id.

Here is a highly informative discussion of submarine source noise.

https://fas.org/spp/eprint/snf03221.htm

1 ( +1 / -0 )

On the latest subs pump jet propulsors have mostly replaced propellers. These are shrouded mult-stage affairs one sees frequently on torpedos. The shroud reduces cavitation and associated noise.

The best Soviet submarine story I have is from late 1985 or early 1986. A place I was stationed had an ASWOC, Anti-Sub Warfare Operations Center. The work was highly classified and the people we knew who worked there were taciturn. One day in the chow line the three showed up together talking with great agitation. Weird. They are never chipper like that. So we asked "Ok, what happened that has everyone so excited". So each of them answered a piece of the question in turn. The first said "A Victor class just sank". The next said "it had a reactor melt down" and the third person added "we heard the reactor drop out of the bottom of the boat". Yikes! I figured the seas had ears, SOSUS systems were everywhere, but that was not what I expected to hear right before lunch.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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