Monday, April 25, 2005

Taking responsibility

I don't want to cheapen the tragedy of the Japanese rail crash in any way, but I have to say, the Japanese really have a very different sense of responsibility than certain other institutions in the West. While investigators are still pulling apart the wreckage looking for clues Takeshi Kakiuchi, President of Japan Railway West is resigning. In a situation where perhaps no one will ever, beyond doubt, be fingered with personal responsibility, Kakiuchi is making a statement, that on his watch no such "accident" should have happened.

As I heard one person say about Abu Ghraib - you can delegate authority but you can't deligate responsibility. Blogging from a country where finding a fall guy to blame for every mistake is the modus operandi I have to say I find it almost refreshing to read about a country where responsibility is considered a top down thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, the japanese have honor (I mean, have you ever heard of any other country with a tradition of committing suicide when dishonoured ?), something our rulers seem to lack... We live in societies which allow too many people to evade their resposibilities, when you mess up, you've got to pay for the whole, not just a tenth and let the insurance company cover for the rest ;)

PS: I'll try to sum up the subject I told you about, some time, I've been busy, lately, having been forced to look at how families and the health system cope with dying people, and it's ugly, it simply disgusted me, if things stay that way, I sure hope I'll die the fastest way I can.