双语阅读｜日本制造跌下神坛，百年企业数据造假
AKIO MORITA, co-founder of Sony, liked to recall his first trip to Germany in 1953, when a waiter stuck a small paper parasol in his ice-cream and sneered: “This is from your country.” Like many of his post-war compatriots, Mr Morita was ashamed that Japan was known for shoddy goods. The fierce drive to reverse that reputation resulted in the Deming Prize, a quality-control award named after an American business guru so revered in Japan that he received a medal from the emperor for contributing to its industrial rebirth. All that hard work is under threat.
索尼公司(Sony)的联合创始人盛田昭夫(AKIO MORITA)喜欢回忆他在1953年首次访德之旅。当时有一名服务员在他的冰淇淋里插了一把小纸伞，冷嘲热讽地说:“这是你们国家的。”与战后的许多同胞一样，盛田昭夫对日本以劣质商品而闻名一事深感羞愧。为了赢回这一声誉，诞生了以美国商业大师戴明命名的质量控制奖戴明奖（Deming Prize）。戴明在日本备受尊崇，并从天皇那里荣获了一枚勋章，表彰他为促进工业复兴而做出的贡献。现在，所有这一切的努力都受到了威胁。
Toray Industries, a textiles and chemicals giant, is the latest pillar of corporate Japan to admit to quality problems. This week a subsidiary said it had faked inspections on reinforcement cords used to strengthen car tyres. Sadayuki Sakakibara, a former president of Toray, said he was “ashamed” and apologised on behalf of Keidanren, the powerful business lobby he now heads. On November 23rd, Mitsubishi Materials sheepishly confessed (during a public holiday) that its subsidiaries had falsified data, on aluminium and other products used in aircraft and cars, given to customers in Japan, America, China and Taiwan. Those customers include Japan’s air force, earning a rebuke from Itsunori Onodera, the defence minister.
纺织业和化工巨头东丽株式会社(Toray Industries)是最近承认出现质量问题的又一日本支柱行业。本周，东丽旗下子公司表示，他们在加强汽车轮胎的加固线的检查中做假。东丽前总裁榊原定征(Sadayuki Sakakibara)表示感到“羞愧”，并代表他领导的强大企业团体Keidanren表示道歉。11月23日，三菱公司(Mitsubishi Materials)在这个公休假日期间羞答答地承认其子公司在飞机和汽车上使用的铝制品以及和其他一些产品中存在数据篡改，而这些产品销往日本、美国、中国大陆和台湾等地区的客户。在这些客户中有日本空军，因而受到了国防部长小野寺五典（Itsunori Onodera）的强烈指责。
Kobe Steel, which was founded in 1905, recently revealed that it had sold “non-conforming products” to Boeing, Ford, Toyota and other household names. The firm had faked data on the tensile strength—the ability to withstand loads without breaking—of aluminium sheets, copper products and other items shipped to over 500 companies. Nissan and Subaru, both car firms, have admitted to similar fakery.
成立于1905年的神户钢铁公司(Kobe Steel)最近披露，曾将“不合格品”出售给波音(Boeing)、福特(Ford)、丰田(Toyota)以及其他家喻户晓的品牌。该公司伪造了一批铝制品、铜制品等他产品抗拉强度的数据，并销售给了500多家企业。汽车公司日产（Nissan）和斯巴鲁（Subaru）都承认有类似的造假行为。
The welter of revelations is bad for Japanese business as a whole. Its main defence against low-cost competitors from China, Taiwan and South Korea is its reputation for quality, says Takeshi Miyao, a consultant to the local car industry. Hiroshige Seko, the economy minister, said the falsifications had “shaken the foundations of fair trade” and demanded to know why it had taken Mitsubishi over six months to admit misconduct. That is timely compared with Nissan. Its use of uncertified technicians on final vehicle checks goes back 40 years. The technicians reportedly borrowed hanko— Japan’s all-important signature seals—from qualified inspectors.
造假风波对整个日本企业而言非常不利。日本汽车行业的咨询人士宫尾岳（Takeshi Miyao）表示，针对中国大陆和台湾以及韩国的低成本优势，日本想要与之抗衡的主要依赖是质量精良的声誉。日本产业大臣世耕弘成（Hiroshige Seko）表示，造假行为“动摇了公平贸易的基础”，并要求了解三菱在六个月之后才公开有造假行为的原因。与日产相比，三菱的应对是及时的。日产雇佣无认证的技术人员对车辆进行最终检查可以追溯到40年前。据报道，这些技术人员从有认证的检查人员那里借来签名印章。
Ironically, a corporate-governance code introduced in 2015 to rev up competitiveness may explain why such facts are coming to light. The code, which includes a whistleblowing clause, has encouraged employees to speak out, says Toshiaki Oguchi of Governance for Owners Japan, a governance lobby group (Toray disclosed its cheating only after an anonymous online post). Privately, people at car firms complain that the problems in their industry relate to excessively stringent government standards introduced in the early 1950s. Some workers consider them primitive and unnecessary.
讽刺的是，这些造假曝光源于在2015年引入为提高竞争力的企业治理规范。治理游说团体日本业主管理协会的尾口俊明（Toshiaki Oguchi）表示，这个规范含有一个告密条款，鼓励员工们畅所欲言(东丽就是在网络匿名帖出现后披露其造假行为) 。在私下里，汽车企业员工抱怨他们行业的问题与上世纪50年代初引入的过于严格的政府标准有关。有些员工认为这些标准陈旧而无用。
It is also possible that manufacturers set standards too high. Many have stayed ahead of competitors by promising to deliver products that go far beyond minimum standards of quality or performance, says Alberto Moel, a specialist in industrial robotics. Conflict occurs when pressure flows down to the factory floor to meet those promises, he says. “Then you get corner-cutting, misrepresentations and sometimes unethical or even criminal behaviour.” Nissan’s woes have been blamed by some on Carlos Ghosn, its former chairman (nicknamed “Le Cost Cutter”), who sacked thousands of workers.
有可能的情况是制造业厂商设定的标准过高。工业机器人专家阿尔贝托·莫雷尔(Alberto Moel)称，许多企业为了一直领先于竞争对手，承诺交付远远超出质量或性能最低标准的产品。他表示，当这些交付压力流到工厂时，就会引发矛盾。“然后你就会偷工减料、歪曲事实，有时甚至做出不道德甚至犯罪的行为。” 一些人把日产的困境归咎于前任董事长卡洛斯·戈恩(Carlos Ghosn) (绰号省钱先生)——他曾解雇了数千名员工。
It is too early to predict permanent damage to Japanese manufacturing, says Koji Endo of SBI Securities in Tokyo. Most of the recent cases relate to paperwork rather than actual quality standards, he argues. They have thus far resulted in no foreign product recalls. True, Takata, a maker of defective airbags, was forced out of business this year by a blizzard of lawsuits linked to at least 18 fatalities, but other firms have rebounded. Toyota is again the world’s top carmaker, despite a recall of 9m vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals.
东京思佰益证券（SBI Securities）的远藤浩二（Koji Endo）表示，现在预测对日本制造业造成长期性伤害还为时过早。他认为，最近的案例大多与文书工作有关，而不是以实际的质量标准。到目前为止，他们还没有召回外国产品。的确，因安全气囊异常而造成至少18人死亡事故的高田公司(Takata)面临一连串法律诉讼而导致破产，但其他公司却出现了反弹。丰田尽管召回了900万辆有故障油门踏板的汽车，却再次成为全球最大的汽车制造商。
That followed years of restructuring. Most Japanese companies now have at least two independent directors on their boards; until recently, they usually had none. The result is closer scrutiny of wrongdoing, along with greater pressure to perform well financially. The battle between quality and cost-cutting will surely intensify, says Mr Oguchi. “The key is getting the balance right.”
这发生在数年的重组之后。现在大多数日本公司的董事会至少拥有两位独立董事；直到最近，他们却不再设立独立董事。其结果是对不法行为的严格审查，以及对财务状况施加更大压力。质量与成本削减之间的斗争必将加剧，尾口俊明表示，“关键是要保持平衡。”
编译：邓思琦
编辑：翻吧君
来源：经济学人