Japanese culture and its scapegoat-seeking media often make bad times far worse for companies compromised by events. But for foreign firms less familiar with the country's societal norms, such problems can easily spiral completely out of control.
On the evening of June 3, 2006, Hirosuke Ichikawa, a 16-year-old high-school student, was maneuvering his bicycle and backing out of an elevator on the 12th floor of a public apartment building in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Then the elevator suddenly started ascending with both its outer and inner doors open, and the boy was jammed between the floor of the elevator and the top of the entrance frame. Although he was rushed to hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
At that time, top executives of Schindler Group — the Swiss company whose Japanese subsidiary made the elevator — could not have imagined how much it would affect their business in this country.