The lack of corporate ethics has cast a pall over the whole of society.

Not only Snow Brand but also Nippon Meat Packers, Mitsui Corp., Tokyo Electric Power, and other leading Japanese companies have seen executive heads roll as a consequence of their moral laxity.

If pressed, these people and companies would probably respond with, "But everyone else is doing it" or "This never used to be a problem." But these thread-bare excuses only illustrate how pervasive the corporate rot is.

In fact, even if they used to get away with this sort of thing before, that was before. Now is now. The times have changed, society now expects higher ethical standards of companies, and any company that cannot stay current is doomed to oblivion. It is imperative that all companies take a hard look at their practices and see if they meet today’s standards. You cannot shape the standards to fit your practices. It has to be the other way around. "We've always done business this way" is no excuse.

Tamiya Masahiro

AquaNet