Flaws in Japan’s Leadership Deepen Sense of Crisis

[nadinbrzezinski]

TOKYO — With all the euphemistic language on display from officials handling Japan’s nuclear crisis, one commodity has been in short supply: information.

When an explosion shook one of many stricken reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Saturday, power company officials initially offered a typically opaque, and understated, explanation.

“A big sound and white smoke” were recorded near Reactor No. 1, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, announced in a curt memo. The matter “was under investigation,” it added.

Foreign nuclear experts, the Japanese press and an increasingly angry and rattled Japanese public are frustrated by government and power company officials’ failure to communicate clearly and promptly about the nuclear crisis. Pointing to conflicting reports, ambiguous language and a constant refusal to confirm the most basic facts, they suspect officials of withholding or fudging crucial information about the risks posed by the ravaged Daiichi plant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/asia/17tokyo.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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This is a good primer on the culture at play here...

Oh and to my shock the Zaibatsus did not fully go away...

[flamingdem]

1. I wish I could find an article that compares Japanese business culture to S&M

It helped me understand it much better. It's quite different from here in terms of hierarchy and what one can and cannot do or say.

That said they know they are screwing around, and to some extent just don't care, it's their mess.