Re: [tlug] (OT) The enigma of Japan

[JC Helary <brandelune@example.com>]

On mercredi 10 juin 09, at 13:10, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> but its accounting rules *are* unique, and they are uniquely  
> obfuscatory.

Maybe, but I am pretty sure that is not what Kerr meant. I don't have  
the book anymore so I can't check, but maybe it's time for me to check  
it again.

Anyway, what _I think_ triggered my refusal to read any further was  
that (I seem to remember that) he claimed that unorthodox practices  
(as in "not like in the _rest of the world_" unorthodox) allowed  
Japanese organization to be incredibly inefficient while being allowed  
by the system to maintain a facade of unquestioned efficiency. When  
that was exactly what was happening at the time in the US with all the  
bogus accounting uncovered by the Enron/Worldcom/etc scandals that led  
to the Sarbanes-Oxley act. But the situation in the US was not limited  
to accounting practices either. The power grid system in California  
was also working totally erratically for reasons that would not be  
foreign at all in a Japanese context.

Besides for that I have no doubts that Kerr loves Japan. He loves it  
so much that he's preferred to take a leave and stays most of the time  
in Thailand now from what I've heard. His Chiiori project is doing  
much better now that when I first saw it 10 years ago too, so maybe  
some Japanese people are slowly coming to their senses... I don't  
know. I wish that is the case, but I doubt with the current political  
clowns that are in power (or about to join the club) Japan will  
profoundly change.

Jean-Christophe Helary