東芝醜聞震動日本 Corporate Japan shaken by Toshiba scandal

For years, Toshiba, one of Japan’s best-known consumer electronics brands, had been a poster child of the country’s efforts to police corporate behaviour. The 140-year-old company even appeared as a case study in books on governance.

多年來，日本最知名的消費電子品牌之一東芝(Toshiba)，一直是該國在規範公司行爲的努力中推崇的典範。這家擁有140年曆史的公司甚至曾經成爲公司治理圖書的研究案例。

But what Seiya Shimaoka, an internal auditor at Toshiba, witnessed in late January was the opposite of exemplary behaviour. Instead, he saw the early signs of what would become one of the country’s most embarrassing corporate scandals, involving a company-wide effort to inflate profits by more than $1bn.

但今年1月底，東芝內部監察委員島岡聖也(Seiya Shimaoka)親眼看到的情況卻與典範行爲背道而馳。他看到了即將成爲日本最令人尷尬的公司醜聞之一的早期跡象，牽涉到全公司範圍內將利潤虛增逾10億美元的行爲。

Mr Shimaoka repeatedly asked Makoto Kubo, head of Toshiba’s five-person auditing committee and a former chief financial officer of the company, to examine the accounts at its laptop business.

島岡聖也曾多次請求由5人組成的東芝監察委員會的委員長、東芝前首席財務官久保誠(Makoto Kubo)調查該公司筆記本電腦業務的賬目。

Mr Kubo brushed off the requests with a warning that reopening them would cause the company to miss its deadline for reporting earnings.

久保誠沒有理會這些請求，他警告稱，重新調查賬目將導致該公司無法按時提交財報。

According to a 294-page report written by a panel of external lawyers and accountants, profits in its struggling PC division were later found to have been overstated.

由外部律師和會計師組成的一個專門調查委員會撰寫的長達294頁的報告稱，東芝步履維艱的個人電腦業務的利潤後來被發現有所誇大。

Mr Shimaoka, who declined to comment, was one of the few executives who survived the ouster of nearly half of Toshiba’s 16-member board, including Hisao Tanaka, chief executive, after the panel found that top executives were involved in accounting malpractices over the past seven years.

島岡聖也拒絕置評。在該調查委員會發現過去7年東芝高管參與會計違規行爲後，東芝的16人董事會有近一半被迫離職，包括社長田中久雄(Hisao Tanaka)。島岡聖也是逃過此劫的少數高管之一。

The scandal at the Japanese conglomerate with $52bn in annual sales has shaken a country that has embarked on sweeping governance reform championed by its prime minister, Shinzo Abe. It has also raised awkward questions about processes across corporate Japan, in the biggest scandal since the Olympus one in 2011.

年銷售額高達520億美元的東芝的財務醜聞震驚日本，此前日本已啓動得到首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)支持的大規模治理改革。這是自2011年奧林巴斯(Olympus)會計醜聞以來日本最大的醜聞，它還引發了外界對於整個日本企業界治理流程的尷尬質疑。

Toshiba was one of the early adopters of the reforms. It introduced three external directors in 2001 when Japanese boardrooms were still dominated by long-time company insiders. On paper, it had a structure that gave its external directors the authority to name top executives and an auditing committee to monitor behaviour of the company’s leaders.

東芝是較早實施治理改革的日本公司之一。該公司於2001年引入3位外部董事，當時日本公司董事會仍由長期任職的公司內部人士主宰。從字面上來看，東芝的治理結構賦予了外部董事任命頂層高管的權力，並設立監察委員會監督該公司高管的行爲。

It was lauded for its efforts. In 2013, the group was ranked ninth out of 120 publicly traded Japanese companies with good governance practices in a list compiled by the Japan Corporate Governance Network, a Tokyo-based non-profit organisation.

這些努力令東芝備受讚譽。2013年，在東京非盈利組織日本公司治理網絡(Japan Corporate Governance Network) 編制的榜單上，東芝在治理良好的120家日本上市公司中名列第9。

The company was also featured in a corporate governance book published in May by Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, one of the country’s biggest law firms. in it, Mr Shimaoka described in detail the multiple layers of checks that were in place to ensure compliance.

東芝還出現在日本最大律師事務所之一森濱田松本律師事務所(Mori Hamada & Matsumoto) 5月出版的一本公司治理書中。島岡聖也在書中詳細描述了東芝爲確保合規而建立的多層控制體系。

Yet the governance framework laid bare by the panel showed woefully ineffective monitoring at the company.

然而，調查委員會揭示的治理框架卻顯示該公司的監督機制非常低效。

For example, it said Mr Kubo was aware of improper accounting that was systematically carried out from 2008. It added that no action was taken despite the warnings from Mr Shimaoka.

例如，該調查委員會表示，久保誠知曉自2008年開始系統性實施的不合規會計做法。該委員會補充稱，儘管島岡聖也提出警告，但東芝沒有采取任何措施。

The panel also noted that the three external auditors included former diplomats and a former banker who had no accounting expertise. “Internal controls by the auditing committee were not functioning,” it concluded.

該委員會還指出，3名外部監察委員包括兩名前外交官和一位前銀行家，他們都沒有會計專業技能。該委員會總結稱：“監察委員會的內部控制沒有發揮作用。”

Mr Kubo, who also resigned from the board yesterday, declined to comment.

久保誠週二也從東芝董事會辭職，他拒絕置評。

Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup, says a number of Japanese companies have appeared to be in compliance with the country’s corporate governance code introduced in June.

花旗集團(Citigroup)分析師繪澤浩太(Kota Ezawa)表示，很多日本企業似乎都遵循了日本6月頒佈的公司治理法規。

Many have installed more outside directors, unwound large cross-shareholdings and promised higher returns on equity to investors.

很多公司增加了外部董事，取消了大規模交叉持股，並向投資者承諾更高的股本回報率。

“But look at Toshiba,” he cautions. “We need to make sure that companies understand that having structures that look good is not enough.

“但看看東芝吧，”他警告稱，“我們需要確保企業明白，僅有表面上不錯的治理結構是不夠的。”

“Toshiba was lauded as a frontrunner in governance efforts, but that was a misunderstanding. Its governance structure looked good but the execution was not.” Similarly, Hiroyuki Kamano, a lawyer who sits on the board of several Japanese companies, says the aggressive pursuit of profits and pressures to meet earnings targets are not unique to Toshiba.

“東芝被稱讚爲治理的先鋒，但這是一種誤解。該公司的治理結構看上去不錯，但執行起來卻並非如此。”類似地，在日本7家公司董事會任職的律師Hiroyuki Kamano表示，對於利潤的瘋狂追求以及實現盈利目標的壓力並非東芝特有的。

Nearly half of the overstated profits identified by the panel were attributed to the 2012 financial year when many companies, including Panasonic and Fujitsu, were grappling with pressures from the stronger yen and the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

該調查委員會確定的虛增利潤中，近一半歸屬於2012財年，當時很多公司（包括松下(Panasonic)和富士通(Fujitsu)）都在艱難應對日元走強所帶來的壓力，以及2011年日本海嘯和福島第一核電站(Fukushima Daiichi)核事故的影響。

“Increased profits and better performance lead to promotions so there is always an evil incentive” to make the figures look better, says Mr Kamano.

Hiroyuki Kamano表示，“利潤增加和業績改善會帶來升職，因此總存在一種（讓數據變得更好看的）罪惡動機”。

Under Mr Tanaka, Toshiba had also sought to mitigate its dependence on chipmaking, which accounts for 26 per cent of its annual revenue and is the sole division which generates a double-digit profit margin.

在田中久雄的領導下，東芝還尋求減弱對芯片製造業務的依賴，這項業務佔東芝年收入的26%，是唯一取得兩位數利潤率的部門。

“I was midway in my effort to build a second and third pillar of revenue,” he said at a news conference announcing his resignation. “But building new pillars of revenue should not be equated with improper accounting.”

“我正在努力構建第二個和第三個收入支柱，”他在宣佈辭職的新聞發佈會上表示，“但構建新的收入支柱不應等同於會計違規。”

Mr Tanaka has denied giving instructions to employees to inflate profit figures.

田中久雄否認曾指示員工誇大利潤數據。

However, analysts including Mr Ezawa say the scandal is not expected to have a significant impact on Toshiba’s earnings outlook despite uncertainties remaining on how far the company will need to write down the value of its assets.

然而，包括繪澤浩太在內的分析師表示，預計這樁醜聞不會對東芝的盈利前景造成嚴重影響，不過現在仍不確定，該公司將需要在多大程度上減記其資產價值。

This is especially true for Toshiba’s nuclear business, which struggled in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster. Others hope the scandal will accelerate pressures to unload underperforming assets.

東芝的核業務尤其如此。在2011年福島核災難後，該業務陷入困境。其他一些人希望，這樁醜聞將向東芝施加更大壓力，要求其剝離表現不佳的資產。

“The change in earnings may be limited, but even more important is to improve the governance system to rebuild confidence in earnings,” says Mr Ezawa.

繪澤浩太表示：“盈利的變化可能有限，但更爲重要的是改善治理體系，重建對盈利的信心。”