Nonconformist whistleblowers in Japan

In the Japanese culture, loyalty and conformity have long been valued traits. This is especially true in the relationship between workers and employers, where nonconformity has long been frowned upon. In recent years, though, Japan has seen the emergence of a new phenomenon – the whistleblower. According to a story in the Christian Science Monitor:

It’s not easy for an individual to call attention to illegal or unethical behavior in the workplace in any culture. But in Japan, where conformity is seen as a virtue, it can be especially difficult.

When officer Toshiro Semba revealed that his bosses in the police department were forging receipts in order to wine and dine on the public’s money, they took his gun away. He was decreed too emotionally unstable to carry a weapon – a humiliation, he says, designed to corner him into quitting. For 500 days, he was ordered to sit alone in a tiny room at the Ehime Prefectural Police…

Whistle-blowers like Semba have been especially solitary in Japan, where conformity and respect for hierarchy are venerated as tradition. They have been labeled as traitors. But that attitude is gradually changing. As Japan modernizes, people increasingly see themselves as individuals and consumers, with a duty to speak up against wrongdoing…

Whistle-blowers have been rare because Japanese companies, even major ones, are run like families, and individual workers don’t see themselves as hired by contract as do American workers, says Koji Igata, business administration professor at Osaka University of Economics. “Whistle-blowers are seen as eccentrics who’ve turned on their parents,” he says. 

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