Sharp Corp., once the global standard for liquid crystal displays, ran into financing problems and was sold off to Taiwan’s Foxconn last year for about US$3.6 billion, becoming the first of Japan’s major electronics makers to fall under foreign ownership. Japanese camera maker Olympus Corp. faced a lawsuit by banks seeking several hundred million dollars in damages after its share price collapsed amid, yes, accounting fraud. In the case of the Olympus accounting fraud, in fact, it was the CEO himself, Englishman Michael Woodford, who blew the whistle in 2011. That’s not to say non-Japanese have any monopoly on good corporate governance practices. Criminal behavior in the boardroom at the likes of WorldCom and Enron Corp. in the US, or Volkswagen in Germany, show that white-collar crime isn’t restricted by race, color or creed.
Peter Langan, 'Toshiba – yet another Japanese giant falls from grace', Asia Times
