Word: okada
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Though no cause-and-effect relationship between economic and physical ills ^ can be proved, Japanese medical experts do not consider the notion as farfetched as it sounds. Almost any disease can be exacerbated by tension. Observes Dr. Ryozo Okada, a professor of medicine at Tokyo's Juntendo University: "When faced with a sudden change in the business climate, those who are not capable of dealing with a new situation internalize stress, push themselves beyond limits and die suddenly...
During the two hours that presiding Judge Mitsunori Okada took to explain the ruling, a fidgety Tanaka gazed up at the ceiling, squinted down at his watch, folded and unfolded his ubiquitous paper fan. When Okada finally issued the verdict, Tanaka listened with his eyes closed. The three-judge panel found Tanaka guilty of having accepted $2 million in bribes from the Lockheed Corp. during the early 1970s in return for persuading Japan's largest domestic airline, All Nippon Airways, to buy the company's TriStar jets. He was sentenced to four years in prison and fined...
...Okada's troubles began in 1972 when, as Mitsukoshi's newly elected president, he developed a taste for high living. Despite his flair for public relations and his reputation as a supersalesman, Okada's autocratic ways angered his colleagues. In Japan, paramount value is placed on a business leader's ability to manage by "consensus," or group agreement on company policies and tactics. But, griped one Tokyo banker close to the company, "Okada became a dictator." Though married, with three children, Okada became a target for Tokyo tabloids, which began publishing breathless accounts of his private...
Meanwhile, soaring oil prices in the early 1970s slowed the Japanese economy, and Mitsukoshi's profits began to slip. Top management at Mitsukoshi's associated companies in the Mitsui group eventually began to wonder if Okada could turn the store's fortunes around. The final blow came three weeks ago when experts charged that Persian treasures shown last month at the main Mitsukoshi store in Tokyo featured costly fakes. When Okada refused to accept responsibility for the hoax and resign, the store's 16 other directors convened at Mitsui's urging and voted to fire...
...Okada sat in stunned silence during the vote. Then, when it was over, he turned to a colleague and asked in disbelief, "Naze?" (Why?). It was a question any Japanese businessman should have known the answer to, and never learning it had apparently been Okada's problem all along. Said the company's managing director, Tadayoshi Sugita, afterward: "Mitsukoshi will now make a fresh start...