The strangest thing is accompanying Japan's humiliating quality-control crisis: complete silence from on high.
When Olympus tarnished the national brand with a $1.7 billion accounting scandal in 2011, Tokyo shrugged. When Takata's deadly air bags prompted U.S. congressional hearings, Nagatacho looked the other way.
Toshiba's creative bookkeeping? Nothing to see here. Sharp hiding contingent liabilities in merger talks? No worries. Kobe Steel faking stats? The Olympics are coming! Same when Mitsubishi Materials and Toyo Tire & Rubber got busted. Nissan and Subaru with unauthorized inspectors? Eight years of data manipulation by Toray? Hey, every nation has a bad apple or two.