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Whistleblower wins in Supreme Court

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32 Comments
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Glad to hear this!! About damn time!

Olympus yet again.... Woodward was right, rotten to the core.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Mr.Hamada, congratulations on winning the court case on appeal. However, I believe that your expectations are higher than what Olympus would grant you work-wise on Monday.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

When will J-Biz join the 21st century regarding ethics???

2 ( +3 / -1 )

He plans to show up at work at 8:45 a.m. as usual, wearing his company color, blue, as he is confident he is an upstanding “Olympus-man.”

good luck to the guy, but he'll end up in a windowless room with meaningless tasks to complete and still ostracized

1 ( +4 / -3 )

If the high-profile Olympus case wasn't the backdrop for this, I'd wager he wouldn't have won.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Maybe he should be the new president of Olympus.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Olympus was not immediately available for comment Saturday. In the past, it has called the court rulings favoring Hamada “regrettable.”

The Woodward case has shown crystal clear how rotten the management and the employee climate is. Discrimination, unfairness and arrogance seems difficult to root out. Applied to that 'Regrettable' is a euphemism here.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The district court and Olympus should be ashamed of themselves.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My ex is an agency employee and has to put up with bullying from a few of her co-workers. What she told me made my blood boil... her supervisor and manager are trying to make her quit.

I'm glad that the courts came down on the side of the employee... I hope it spurs more people on to stand up for their rights.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

He won, unbelievable. Not a game changer but a start.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

forced to take rudimentary tests and ignored by colleagues, in what he alleged was reprisal for raising the issue of supplier complaints.

How in the world do Japanese companies ever make any money with such idiotic policies?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Honesty is the best policy, but, since Hamada won the case for his unfair domotion, perhaps it will be the only viable policy in the future

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Tokyokawasaki, Ethics are very often disregarded in business anywhere, not just Japan.

@Christina, In many situations, honesty is NOT the best policy. To think so is quite naive.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Bob is right. Hamada seems to be a good guy, but if one has nothing but a degree from a university that has no name, just the word prestigious in parentheses, and is a "life-long company man", he has no qualifications to work anywhere else in any other line of work. Really a crappy existence.

People demonstrating against government policies, whistleblowers coming forward... There are more good people in Japan that is seen from the outside.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Honesty in trade and manafacture is the only way to ensure your customers that your product is safe , reliable and dependable. Dishonesty causes doubt on what ever it is that you wish to market. It is not naive to expect these standards to enable the consumer to discern their choice of purchase. Whistle blowers, up to the present ruling, seem to have had very little protection when malpractice is brought to the attetion of their employers. So it is only my own oppinion when I consider , that if you want to survive in the current economic situation, that honesty is indeed the best policy

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good fighting Hamada san.

I hope they don`t throw him in the basement like that Milton guy from Office Space.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

it sounds a bit as if Japan has the monopoly on this. I read at least two cases here in the smallest of countries. One even lead to an employee commiting suicide for being harassed by his colleagues. I think it's very brave what the guy did but he probably ruined his careerlife, who's gonna take him on after this? And how much 'real' important work will he be getting still now? Business as usual, hard knock life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Some media is specifically attacking the corporate lawyer and her law firm (among top 4 in Japan) in defense of Olympus. They have been known to be active in advising big corporations in their HR strategies (tactics rather) to handle matters of this nature (eg major thinktank in a sexual harassment case etc). Some suggest the specific tactics implemented targeting individual employees to have been highly unethical.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Honesty in trade and manafacture is the only way to ensure your customers that your product is safe ,

Surely, you are right.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's not easy to change a society who believes that they do not have to because they know that Japan's system based on protocol is effective since it is what it is today after the war . They succeeded and this system is also being practice in school senpai - kohai , If you are given a task by your superior " Do it , dont ask " it is a democracy they say but it's not cuz your superior don't like you when you are opinionated. You just have to be timid for you to be accepted. Which Society is better or Best , nobody can tell , cuz every company has its own skeleton in the closet . What matters is that if you feel like being treated badly based on what you believe in , fight or quit & find a company that you can be accepted. Union is taboo in Japan.. I don't think it's ethical for him to stay . This is totally TATAMAE or facade ..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_Protection_Act

These wistleblowers have shown their great courage and character to us. All of us need to start taking ownership to do what is right and wrong for a good cause in society to protect each other. If Japan is willing to change in the 21st century, I would like to suggest Japan to set up a law similar to the above.

Tepco Fukushima nuke disaster could have been well avoided before the 3/11/11 if this law was already in place. It is not too late. This is a good start. Good luck..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Everybody loves whistleblowers unless they are in their own group it seems. Blow the whistle on a Japanese company, and the non-Japanese JT members applaud. Blow the whistle on the U.S. government, and a bunch of American boo very loudly. All whistleblowers get my support. But then, I am not afraid of the truth.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Opinionhated, unless the opinion comes up with SOLUTION to a problem, Americans would disregard opinion. Just trolling. FYI. .

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good on the court and good on him. Although, he may have only won because of Woodford's case.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Gosh...all the energies spent, money and time wasted. The rule of Japan Inc is, no whistle blowers are welcome. Even if you win and got that 'shut your mouth up' money....you can be sure you'll never find another job in Japan. That's why I'm just enjoying myself being a 'guest'. Do my job, kiss some asses and get my salary and perks.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Olympus... why am I not surprised.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

When they do, they are treated as outcasts, sometimes being told to sit in closet-sized offices or to mow the lawn. Sometimes even their children become victims of discrimination. So abhorred is the employee who dares to question the company.

Wow, I never realized corporations here were so backwards. They target children? Hamada probably wants to quit Olympus. Too bad he's unqualified to work anywhere else due to being hired at a young age for lifetime, and no other companies want to hire a 51 year old that will give out all their dirty secrets.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Re: Bob Sneider:

Wow, I never realized corporations here were so backwards. They target children?

The story does not say the companies do this, but that the children become victims of discrimination.

You know how it goes.

At the dinner table, Dad says, Tanaka-san is a real jerk who makes everyone miserable in my department. The children know who he's talking about, and bring that issue to school, where Tanaka's kids also go.

Soon, they are sitting by themselves at lunch, excluded from games, etc.

Solution: don't be a jerk at work!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Mr Hamada should think of himself as a good, upstanding man.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This stuff happens all over the world, but it is Japan that made it personal for me.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I can't speak for Olympus. I've worked at a large Japanese company for 15 years and seen nothing like the horror stories some feel are endemic in Japanese companies. Japan doesn't have the monopoly on corruption and dishonesty nor bullying of employees. I'm personally happy that this was exposed and Mr Hamada deserves respect but please stop making generalisations about Japanese companies. Let's judge on a case by case basis.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The story, as presented here on JT, makes little sense.

Relaying to your bosses that a supplier is luring away good employees is not whistle-blowing.

Well, it may be department-level whistle-blowing: reporting that there is a local culture in your section of the company which breaks company rules. But, in that case, it doesn't make sense to have a fight with the company as a whole.

That is to say, you would think that the highest level of management at Olympus would agree with Hamada. I mean, are they happy if their best employees are being lured away? If so, why have a rule.

I suspect that Hamada was a problem employee who made the lives of those around him difficult, and the highest levels of management at Olympus sided with the others (probably for very good, well-informed reasons).

People who get ostracized and builled in the work place almost always deserve it. They have bad personalities, and those around them retaliate.

If 10 people "bully" 1, what is more probable? That a gang of 10 bullies was simultaneously hired in one place? Or that the problem actually lies with the 1 person?

Aggression, in its various forms, is not a tool that is used exclusively by "bad" people. If there is a dickhead in your workplace, you band together with other good people and take action.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

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