fact remains

"but the fact remains," said my friend, an executive for a multinational japanese corporation, "people died from using our products and so we are responsible for our people."

...my friend was referring to a discontinued line of propane-using heaters that his company manufactured over 20 years ago...in recent days, with winter temperatures dropping and these heaters still around, several people have tragically died from these products...

...twenty years is a long time...the heaters in question were old, their warranties long past due...my friend agreed that the company was not responsible for damages caused by these heaters...

...legally, that is...

...morally, a different story...

...in addition to sending top management to each of the victims' homes to personally apologize for their respective losses and pay each family a large sum of restitution, the company sent high-level reps to virtually every prefecture in japan to assure japanese consumers that the company did not intend to harm them...

...concurring, another friend in our conversation -- he too a manager for this company -- had just come back from weeklong "apology sessions" in kyushu (southern japan)...

::: as we learn more about japanese society, we are fascinated by how the personal and corporate sectors are governed by a prevailing sense of responsibility and restitution :::