The recent spate of industrial scandals shaking Japan's leading firms underlines the need for top management to develop a whole new attitude toward consumers and manufacturing if companies want to recover public trust and restore the country's image for high-quality production.
Revelations of data falsification and other problems have emerged just as the "Made in Japan" label was gaining traction again — following sustained competition from low-cost rivals such as China — thanks to the perception that Japanese firms produce higher-quality products.
"Japanese companies have technical competitiveness. What is being questioned here is their attitude toward consumers," said Shigeru Nakajima, a Tokyo-based lawyer specializing in corporate compliance.