Kidambi Narayanan

Japan is revising it's policies on determining the mileage for the automotive industry. After the MMC scandal that came to light where they had an abnormal practice to determine the vehicle mileage and they had fooled the public for the last 25 years. While it was surprising that the country which had its huge part of growth and development under the automotive industry boom is trying to fix it's basics. The existing policy was based on the trust that the automotive manufacturers would be true to publish the data & basis of the data was not verified. Now, they are contemplating at a policy that would be based on no trust & would be based on the fact of reconciliation, validation and verification of the data. Further, the policy will empower the lawmakers to penalize the wrongdoer. 

Well, the society and the system would be systematic to implement the revised policy for the issue witnessed wouldn't repeat in future.

Corporate scandals are no new to Japan. The scandals are less researched topic in Japan as the society keep them aside as an unfortunate incident and it goes as a passing cloud. Japan has many instances in the last decade that I have witnessed where such scandals surfaced when the trust and truthfulness based upon which most of their policies are made were broken. Everyday newspapers bring out stories of corporate scandals. The big scandals of Livedoor Co., IHI Corp., Nikko Cordial Corp., Nikko Cordial Corp.,Kanebo Ltd.,Olympus Corp.,Yamaichi Securities Co. & Toshiba Corp surfaced over the last two decades & over has shaken the system and the policies based on trust and truthfulness.

 Of late, these scandals have surfaced that has directly hit the common man. The house hold corporate giants name figure up the list. This is more vulnerable that it is breaking the basics of the society. Such scandals are not to be looked only as a financial breach. It has huge social implications on the mindsets of the country citizens and their self pride. These scandals break the roots of the Japanese society strength based on trust and truthfulness.

The construction scandal involving Asahi Kasei Construction Materials where data was fabricated shook the public trust on architecture safety they were proud about of;
The drug scandal involving Aakeda Pharmaceutical where data is fabricated and another scandal by Novartis where critical data was hidden has shook the public trust on safe drugs;
The car safety scandal where the Air bag manufacturer of Takata misinterpreted Inflator data for years.

In the society built on trust and belief that citizens are truthful, these scandals are difficult to come to surface and they take decades for realization.

While in emerging countries, the product from industrialized nations equals high quality, the product brands of corporate giants equals high quality inside these industrialized nations. These perception orders are shaken up with such scandals. 

The scandals are bringing a paradigm shift in structuring the law enforcement policies.  Policies based on trust and truthfulness  which symbolizes a honest and healthy society is fading away. As policies are revised, the policies of rest of the countries are looked up and policing law enforcement policy comes in effect to benefit the society and avoid such scandals.

In the current global order, it will be a great challenge to maintain the law and order with policies based on trust and truthfulness though its would be great if any nation can survive with such policies.

The law enforcement authorities should distance themselves and get into a policing mode to avoid more hidden scandals for it will ensure better safe & healthy life to the people.