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© KYODOWith Ghosn in rear-view mirror, Nissan faces new tests
By Junko Horiuchi TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Strangerland
I did eleven years in Japanese companies. I didn’t escape as unscathed as you, but for the most part I was treated fairly and my nationality wasn’t an issue.
bullfighter
This claim is simply not true. Both the foreign and Japanese media have been asking how this could have been going on without top officials knowing about it.
I have read every article I could find in English and Japanese this is on a major news site or an industry news site and this issue has repeatedly come up.
And, for the record I did eighteen years in a Japanese organization with never a single hassle related to being foreign.
UlsterBoy
Smacks of the "Them and Us" culture.
SauloJpn
@ksteer
How can someone not stick out like and be a CEO?
I do believe there is a glass ceiling for us, Gaijins, here. Sometimes is really hard to tell for most people are so nice and polite all the time.
commanteer
Maybe you didn't intend it to be taken this way, but you seem to be suggesting that mediocrity is the key to thriving in Japanese corporations. That doesn't bode well for the future.
TheRat
One thing is for sure---NO MORE Foreigners at the helm or anywhere near the helm. I myself have learned recently that even though I saw myself as popular, hard-working, interesting, I now realized that the relationships that I have with some of my Japanese colleagues (ones that I thought were friends) were actually non-existent. There is a real foreigner-Japanese divide; it will take another 50 years for foreigners to be truly accepted and given power in the workplace in Japan.
Kenji Fujimori
CEO Hiroto Saikawa bluntly criticized Ghosn's long reign and the concentration of power in his hands after he added the role of Renault's CEO in 2005. Renault holds a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, which in turn owns a 15 percent stake in the French company but with no voting rights.
Ha.. he groomed you and taught you the ropes litle man, you are no businessman just a salaryman paperpusher that looks like a shady yakuza judging by your aura.
Raymond Chuang
At least Nissan has experience building electric cars with the Nissan Leaf. And Renault's side has built a number of electric cars, too. As such, Nissan leaping into building a lot of electric cars isn't a major leap in terms of technology.
ksteer
Now come on, this isn't necessarily indicative of Japanese firms as a whole. My Japanese firm is wonderful. The difference being that I know how not to stand out. If you understand the corporate culture/rules and dont stick out like a nail, then you'll be fine. The difference with a lot of people that have these issues is that they don't fit in, because they haven't spent enough time in Japan to understand the nuances and those people are most likely going to have an issue.
Belrick
The more exposure this story gets, the more clearly it is a setup.
Not a single Japanese executive arrested? Saikawa needs investigating. So long Nissan, you'll never see any of my money again.
sf2k
That there isn't any. That the board of directors is not responsible and has no fiduciary capacity. That they are ungrateful and resentful for Reneau bailing them out. That any measures to fix it will just be more papermache theatre. Interestingly none of those directors will be investigated or held for 20 days
What do 'they' know? Ghosn has been doing this since 1998!! Think about that. He's known details about details between three or four companies, and had to in order to keep it all straight. And did so. He was a hard leader but was no slouch. You had to be your best around him. Multiple levels above any J-exec.
This is just media trashing because Kyodo is an extension of the system. Doesn't matter what the justice system says, it will continue to be written elsewhere that working for a Japanese company is not worth it.
GW
Agreed, best to avoid J-firms, this just goes to show that it is EXTREMELY likely you will NEVER be accepted in the end, even if you make it to CEO!
This ousting will likely haunt Nissan, time will tell.
dbsaiya
Saikawa and the other corporate officers need to be fired for this fiasco as well. Did he read the internal and external audits? No corporate governance, this didn't happen in a vacuum.
Yubaru
Good luck in the future in trying to get any foreign executives to work for you!
Tokyo-Engr
I say this as a person that likes Japan and likes living here. I am a Permanent Resident with 2 decades and likely will stay. I am often a defender of people that seem to be here "bashing" Japan. That said:
So the man has not had a fair trial, has little opportunity to defend himself and he is now already in the "rear view mirror"?
They hired this man to come to do the dirty work of cost cutting that Nissan executives could not do and now when they are done with him and he has done the dirty work they will throw him under the bus. He tool a flailing company and at least brought it back to financial strength.
No mention of the Japanese Board of Directors who should have known about this and their failure to do their jobs.
If Ghosn is given a trial and convicted then he must pay the price. If he did all that was said (the worst would be misappropriation of company funds) then he should be punished.
However it appears he has already been tried and convicted by the media.
Message to foreigners thinking of coming to Japan and working for a Japanese Corporation: Don't. Work for an international firm or start your own.
This coupled with what happened at Olympus shows how Japan feels about "highly skilled foreigners"
Sad....