This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in his book : Practical Accounting -Business Administration and Accounting -. What Inamori said is quoted with “”.
“Capitalist society is not a society where you can do whatever you want to make money. It is a society built on the premise that all participants must uphold social justice, and it is a system that can only work properly if all participants act ethically. In other words, only when social justice is respected and a highly transparent society is built, can the market contribute to social development. To achieve this, first of all, the top leaders who support capitalism need to have high ethical standards, and all companies need to realize and practice fair business administration.”
Here, Mr. Inamori highlights why we must maintain transparency.
The points are as follows.
2. Attitude towards the power
3. The nature of Japanese people
Let me explain one by one.
1. Humen’s imperfection
“Unfortunately, humans are not always perfect. No matter how admirable words and phrases you speak, you may be aware that we are just weak reeds: being tempted and seduced with something attractive, eventually committing fraud. This can be clearly seen by looking into the people who have caused scandals. No one intended to commit fraud or crime from the beginning. In this sense, I believe that accounting plays an extremely important role. This is because if a thorough accounting management system is implemented, people will never commit fraud. Furthermore, even if a fraud occurs, it can be soon found and the damage must be minimal.”
→Scientist Kunihiko Takeda said as follows. This means that as humans evolved from animals, they developed a defect in their cerebrum and a selfish mind has naturally been developed as well. Animals live in herds and fulfill their roles within the herd. Animals never behave selfishly. The reason we are unable to do this is because we have selfish and weak minds that are tempted by what Mr. Inamori refers to here and are driven by desires. We must pay attention every day to how this desire appears and works in our minds.
2. Attitude towards power
” The management system to prevent fraud does not need to be complex or super-advanced. If it is based on a business philosophy of pursuing what is universally justified as a human being, then all we need are extremely simple and primitive systems based on principles such as ‘one-on-one correspondence’, ‘glass-walled management’, and ‘double-checking’.
→I am not a specialist of history but with some interests, I have analyzed global and social phenomena. I have always thought about how people have chased social, political and economic power. Once people have gained power, they fear losing it. So people start using the power not to help others, but to destroy them, in order to protect their possessions. We also occasionally participate in overseas conferences. Each time, I feel this kind of power-seeking attitude spreading through the world. As a Japanese person, I wonder what attitude I should take. At the same time, I feel I must consider what is right as a human being, not what is considered normal or standard under the mood in our era.
3. The nature of Japanese people
”I feel Japanese society as a whole is corrupt. In other words, as a result of everyone simply chasing his own interests without ethical value, Japan as a whole has become a society with extremely weak morals, and society as a whole has become corrupted. In order to rebuild such a highly ethical society, leaders must have a firm philosophy that is justified as human beings, and conduct the right practice in politics, business administration, and management based on that philosophy.”
→Mr. Inamori respects very much Takamori Saigo, the hero in Meiji era revolution. Mr. Saigo said that ‘Japanese people rise up again even from the disaster.’ I think this means that no matter how harsh a time we must experience, the mindset of Japanese people will never disappear. If the Japanese people were raised in a very special environment and their genes are steadily passed on, then I think that no matter what direction the world heads, the Japanese people work hard to rebuild our society based on our ethical values. I would like to always ask myself what it means to be Japanese.
In summary, transparency is the most important thing in a capitalist society. To achieve this, I think it’s important to understand human’s deficiency, how power drives humans, and the value embedded into the genes of Japanese people.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
News Letter subscription is here
