Blog 8

For the last blog of the semester, I have chosen to watch a documentary on the Olympus scandal that happened in Japan. Japan has been known all over the world for the fact that the corporate world is strict and that the stress in the working force is low. People also have a lot of respect to the senior workers and leaders in companies so much so that they could not see this scandal that has been happening for a long time before it was exposed. Michael Woodford, as shown in the documentary, has been associated with Olympus from a very young age and has since climbed the corporate ladder at a fast pace and eventually became the president of Olympus. During his time as the president, he questioned the loss-hiding arrangements of the company and got voted to be sacked by the board. Olympus also paid questionable amounts of money to acquire some of the lesser known companies and this has been exposed by financial magazine FACTA. After the public found out about this scandal, the company’s share prices fell and Michael Woodford won damages for the wrongful dismissal and defamation.

I am fascinated by the ability of the company to have kept this wrongdoing for so long without getting caught or questioned until recently. Had FACTA not publish the story to the public, who knows when will this scandal end? Although it is wrong in the ethical sense, how I see this is that the power of connection among well-known people could lead to this kind of wrongdoings that may be difficult to discover. It could be happening to any major companies in the world right now and we would not even know. I believe that a majority of the world’s population are greedy for wealth hence the scandals and corruption incidents. Previously, I thought that bribery and corruption cases would definitely be solved someday but having seen so many unethical events that has happened, I believe that there is no definite solution for this issue. When the opportunity arises, people will do things that benefit themselves the most. Having watched this documentary has somewhat change my perception of Japan because I always think that it is one of the most corrupt-free country in the world.