Satoru Nagai, a 42-year-old chief producer at the already scandal-tainted Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), "whistle-blew" at a press conference he staged on January 13. Because of the ambiguous and feeble way he brought up the accusation against whoever it was, the personal ordeal he has gone through with a lot of sweat and tears seems to be getting nowhere. Since the way things have unfolded around Nagai's accusation, however, are pretty much indicative of the situation with press freedom in this nation, I will try to reconstruct the entire chronology below here as far as I can: · read more (1,899 words)

(TFP Administrator: I'm just posting, on his or her behalf, an anonymous e-mail we have recently received. Anyone who has additional information, or a comment to make, in relation to the alleged irregularities is solicited to post it on our Whistle-blowers' BB.)

Recently, Citibank Japan CEO Douglas Peterson told a parliamentary finance committee that lax corporate governance and an "aggressive sales culture" were behind abuses at the private banking unit, ordered to be closed by regulators in September. I am not 100% sure, but I would like to report another possible questionable activity.

DP recently made this apology, but there is reason to wonder if it is sincere. Citigroup still has major internal audit and compliance problems, including:

- Sourcing of unlicensed vendors
- Insufficient due diligence regarding vendor contracts
- Employment of foreign staff who sometimes lack proper work visas

These practices are grave violations of the Japanese labor law because:

- Citibank recently dismissed many Japanese employees
- Citibank engaged unlicensed outsourcing firms
- Japanese employees were replaced with illegal labor
· read more (420 words)

Today I received an anonymous mail at the TFP's mail account. The sender of the mail says he or she has personally witnessed, in a U.S-based financial institution doing business in Japan, various irregularities such as the use of unlicensed temp-dispatching firms to replace Japanese employees with foreigners who are often overstaying their visas or on the wrong visa status. Although I'm basically with him/her, this mail has prompted me to clarify, all a new, the roles the TokyoFreePress can play in bringing the wrongdoers to justice.

Admittedly the word WBing has a shady connotation in it. When an organization, or the whole nation for that matter, is equipped with a built-in self-purification mechanism, it's only cowards that think of WBing because all they have to do, instead, is to stand up, step forward and say whatever has to be said, addressing to the right person. But obviously that is not the case with this nation. Another way of saying what I wrote in our "Mission Statement" is that I think I should join forces with like-minded people, and help them join forces with each other, to bring up allegations against the government and the media establishment wherever they are not telling the whole truth. So WBing is the central and inherent part in the mission of this website. · read more (672 words)

Having lagged far behind other industrialized countries, Japan saw in June this year the passage of a bill to safeguard those courageous insiders who dare to disclose, in the public interest, their first-hand knowledge about their employers' practices in violation of the governing laws or the business ethics.

Before the legislation a whistleblower was considered public enemy number one not only because whistleblowing constituted a major treason against the organization he is working for but because the whistleblower was considered an unforgivable traitor to the entire society where perfect harmony always prevails so the people don't have to turn each other in, like in North Korea or China, to maintain social order. · read more (787 words)