Everyone could understand that – Japan is much the same. If a company president or politician apologizes, “takes responsibility” and resigns, that unfortunately is often seen as enough. It doesn’t matter if the person apologizing is actually to blame or not – something happened on his watch therefore he is “responsible”, which may only be partly true. In the meantime, those actually responsible for the problem may skate away.

Getting back to the sub case: ultimate responsibility was with the captain, however it came out that a sonar operator was largely to blame as he “saw” the ship but didn’t give that vital information to the captain or the helm. If the captain had apologized first, we might never have known that and a sub-standard sonar operator may have then gone on to cause another accident.

To his credit, the captain never tried to pass the buck during the investigation (he just kept his mouth shut), and he came to Japan on his own dime to apologize to the families personally after the investigation was over.

People at the top of these companies rake in ridiculous amounts of money, and in the majority of cases their company going belly up just means that they’ll only be able to afford *one* yacht this year. Some CEOs end up playing with the company, and the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people, as if it were some sort of game. When things go sour they can quickly distance themselves from the problem and pass the buck this way or that.

I think a public apology would do wonders for bringing CEOs closer to the public and the people who work for them, and giving an actual sense of responsibility to them and their position.

Of course, that’s not to say that it always works in Japan… *cough*Nova*cough*

And while I’m thinking about it, if you’re going to apologize, say it like you mean it and don’t feed the TV cameras the “if I did or said anything that might have offended anybody, I apologize” shtick and run off to hide under your golden parachute. You might as well not say anything at all if you’re going to halfass it like that.

アメリカのグラスレー共和党上院議員が、ウォールストリートの重役幹部に「土下座しろ」と言っています。

「Japanese-style apologies」で「bow deeply」なので、マジで土下座しろと言っています。

要約すると、

「昔日本人がやった自殺まではしなくていいが、ニュースで日本の取締役が、投資家や市民に自分たちの間違いを謝っているのを見た。アメリカ市民の税金を頼んでいるわけだから、それくらいしても良いだろう。」

だそうです。

日本の“文化”が国際進出してい…