I started this work with the following assumptions; There are many different value standards in the world and "The Border-Line between Ethical & Unethical Conducts" are delicately different from country to country or from culture to culture. We can often see that some seriously unethical conducts in one country are not necessarily serious in some other country.When big changes take place globally and one very influential ethical standard overwhelmingly smash out other business ethics, companies operating under their traditional standard can not cope with new situation and confusion takes place. Many of the recent scandals of Japanese companies are same type of tragedies derived from this situation. By compairing the difference of business ethics of U.S., Switzerland & Japan, I discovered that there are two types of unethical conducts. One is "Type A" (Absolute evils which is stipulated in Swiss Banking Act as crimes. This will be accepted as unethical by all other standards.) and the other is "Type B" (Some of unethical evils of U.S.concept which are not considered serionsly unethical by Swiss standard. - Controversy exists for "Type B" among different value standards as a relative matter.) Japanese companies are immune from "Type A" unethical conducts but not immune from "Type B". Therefore, the most important thing for Japanese companies is how to improve their stance for "Type B" unethical area. However, "Type B unethical conducts"are deeply rooted in the characteristics of Japanese Culture. When we overlook the total situation of the world, U.S.Standard has almost become defacto global standard and our urgent need would be to seriously introduce the sense of "Transparency", "Accountability" & "Self-Reliance" in our business culture. By doing this, since Japanese companies are generally excellent in the area of "Type A Ethics",We will be free from confusion created by big-bang and we will be able to return to confidence again soon.
