Olympus operated and continues to operate today, employing, selling and buying. If it was that dire, why is that? Should the company be liquidated and everyone let go? Operating profit hasn't been all that bad over the last 15 years. It had access to capital to keep operating: access which it would...

It was about 10% of one year of sales and it happened 15 years ago. So, that's about 1% of total sales over that time. You could calculate it as a percentage of Japanese GDP over 15 years and try to make it seem even more insignificant. However, that's not the relevant metric and nor are the percen...

I don't disagree with you , Mulboyne, about the purity if his motivations or the enormous hurdles he was trying to overcome, or the evilness of cross-holding shareholders. I just think that the fight could not be won without him having a ace up his sleeve, such as a controlling interest shareholder...

Fairly negligent on the part of the police. The suspect used the knife on himself but could just as easily have turned on the them instead.

Unfortunately, everyone lost on the bottom line from this, and that's all that stockholders care about. They don't care if Woodford did the right thing or did the wrong thing, they only care about their money. A quick look at the portfolios of Japanese institutional investors would suggest that mon...

Looking through the lens of the retrospectoscope, quietly going to the authorities through a proxy, while building an alliance of influential board members and major stockholders might have been a strategy that worked. Woodford had evidence of highly suspicious actions at his company. His responsib...

Did Woodford contact the shareholders before he sent his letter to the chairman? I don't know the answer to that but I would doubt he did. There are a few threads on the Japan Intercultcultural Consulting LinkedIn group about Olympus. Here , a guy called Dan Baum seems to despise Woodford for being...

I'm not talking about rights and wrongs here I'm talking about perceptions, as far as the shareholders are concerned if he'd played along it would have all faded into the long and glorious history of dodgy accounting. The shareholders don't hold it against Woodford that he lifted the covers on Olym...

...He just cost the shareholders a lot of money... I've seen a few people make this claim. What cost the shareholders money, was the fact that the board made some disastrous investments which they then spent more money concealing. Woodford carries no blame for that and it is perverse to try to pin ...

Funnily enough, I recently had a sudden urge to know where in Tokyo, inside the Yamanote Line loop, is furthest from any railway or subway station. I hadn't pored over a map to work it out but Captain Japan and I both wondered, even before this announcement, if it might be somewhere in the area betw...

[floatr] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f040b83008c1.jpg [/floatr] The Yomiuri reports (Japanese) that construction will start on a new Yamanote Line station between Shinagawa and Tamachi, currently the longest stretch between stops. The last to be added on the circuit was N...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f02ad80c4bd3.jpg The Italian press is reporting that Mario Vattani, who has held a number of diplomatic posts in Japan, most recently Consul General in Osaka, is an extreme right-winger who has performed with his rock band at events supporting...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f02a6b1350e9.jpg Thomas Köhler walked 2,900km from North Japan to South over 5 months Blog http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f02a874a2419.jpg http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f02aa0aa2b00.jpg

Two foreigners were hit by a light truck at a pedestrian crossing in Iidamachi, near Narita City, at 2:30am this morning. One, a woman, died at the scene while the man she was with is seriously hurt. The driver has been arrested. He says that the traffic lights were green and, when he saw the couple...

Guitarist Gary Moore, who died earlier this year, mostly appeared on album covers or in press photos scowling at the camera. He rarely looked a happy man. Here's his usual expression: http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794efeb7589d2f1.jpg In the mid 80s, however, Minako Honda was i...

Yomiuri: Govt to start point system for foreigners The government has decided to start a "point system" for foreign workers next spring to attract highly skilled talent, government officials said Wednesday. Factors such as academic career, employment history and annual income will be translated int...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794ef6761fa6c49.jpg 15 people took part in a "Down With Christmas" demo in Shibuya yesterday. They describe themselves as "jilted men" who feel excluded by commercialized dating events such as Valentine's Day, White Day and Christmas Eve. It's ap...

Original Flickr photo here.

This site now offers an English version For instance: Cosy Village Jasmine wants a foreign girl to live on reduced rent and speak/teach English Zero Start House wants designers There are a few properties up on the site, which all accept foreign tenants although some aren't open to men.

I am surprised that Softbank hasn't pulled their commercials using Carver. I watched a couple just a few days ago, and there he was. Maybe Mr. Son doesn't think much of this and will let it go. Lucky for Carver, if that is the case. I think it might help that Ryo Ishikawa committed the same offence...

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