Is this Japan in a nutshell? Yesterday and last week Obayashi, one of Japan’s largest construction firms was investigated by police in another round of bid rigging scandals. Alex Kerr has written extensively in his book “of dogs and demons” on the way the Japanese government has initiated an inward development by creating jobs in the country side of Japan through an endless stream of construction works. Kerr notes the countless roads, dams, embankment works etc… that have concretised the Japanese countryside. All the major Japanese construcution companies have been riding a wave of steady prefectural work since the late 70’s. Dango, as bid rigging is called in Japan, has been more or less accepted as part of the process. An interesting paper on dango here.
These days however, the government seems to be cracking down on this practice and heads are (literally) rolling. Some jump to their deaths and some, like the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hang themselves. Obviously these people did not see another way out, except for an easy death. Takeo Obayashi, however, CEO and chairman of the Obayashi construction company is being “demoted” to board director and Norio Wakimura, president, will leave his post to become an “advisor”. Even though Wakimura’s resignation will be the first time that a head of a construction company takes responsibility for bid rigging, it all looks too convenient to me.