Japan Press Weekly

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2015 July 29 - August 4 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Toshiba commits accounting fraud while promoting nuclear power

It has come to light that high executives of Toshiba, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of nuclear reactors, were involved in the company’s accounting irregularities. The executives were also involved in government policy-making, seeking to resume the operation of idled reactors.

Examples of accounting fraud were found also in Toshiba’s nuclear power business. Business in this field amount to billions of yen and it takes a long time to finish the whole process including design, construction, and maintenance. A former Toshiba employee said that since few competitors exist in this market, it is relatively easy to manipulate accounting figures.

The second Abe Cabinet, which was inaugurated in December 2012, appointed the then Toshiba President Sasaki Norio as a nongovernment member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy which works as a control tower in regard to the government policy-making.

Sasaki is an expert in nuclear energy, having served as the chief of Toshiba’s nuclear power sector. In meetings of the government council, Sasaki repeatedly emphasized the benefits of atomic energy. For example, in a meeting held on February 28, 2013, he said, “As various expectations for nuclear power generation still exist for different reasons, it is essential to resume the operations of offline reactors.”

Toshiba executives seem to have disregarded both compliance with accounting rules and the extent of public opposition to nuclear power. Are profits from nuclear power so huge that they lose their sense of right and wrong?