Lies the Japanese Paper Industry Told...
by Bonnie Alter, London on 01.19.08
Two of the big paper companies in Japan have now admitted that they lied about the amount of recycled paper in their paper. Nippon Paper confessed first to false claims, admitting that it had been falsifying information since 1996. It had used only one percent recycled paper in New Year's cards supplied to Japan's postal service--which officially requires 40 percent recycled content. The company's president has done the honourable thing and stepped down, saying that he would take responsibility for the scandal.
Then Oji Paper admitted that it too had lied for the last ten years, saying that the amount of recycled paper in its copy and printing paper was 50% when in fact it was between 5 and 10%. Envelopes had been sold as 70% recycled, when they were only 30%. Some products contained no recycled material at all. Their president won't resign but he did note that he had "betrayed public trust." Fuji Xerox have said that they will no longer buy recycled paper from Nippon, others such as Canon and Konica Minolta are threatening to do the same.Stock share prices in both companies have plummeted. Three other firms are also being accused. :: Guardian
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C'mon people.... I expected better.
Speaking of "honesty":
I've always pondered over the idea of government and corporations lying to the public when it came time to disclose figures. I've even questioned the accuracy of research statistics and polls. How do we know they're right??? A couple of numbers make all the difference in deciding what is acceptable to the public and what is not.
In terms of politicians telling the truth and having the ability to prosecute them if they knowingly mislead http://mo-truth.blogspot.com/ have done a great deal to highlight the problem and introduce a bill in the UK parliament to make it law - I hope it works.
I believe New Zealand has something similar.
Re. companies and polls... I see it always being a problem...
i would think 99% of the population trusts what they read on packaging as 'truth'. witness the 'product of canada' report on CBC marketplace as an example. while that is a severe case of misleading information compared to the blatant lies in the japanese paper scandal we can draw some comparisons.
more companies need to be held responsible and we can't trust understaffed, underfunded bloated organizations like Health Canada or the FDA to watch our backs. we need more independent studies (with yearly reports) on what companies are really selling us, and we need it soon.
did you know that Health Canada doesn't test for chemical content in crib mattresses (ie flame retardents etc)... the only thing they test is whether the mattress catches fire when a cigarette is left on the surface for x amount of time. so who knows what is under the surface your baby will sleep on for at least 2 years??
Indeed hara-kiri may be a little extreme for these two to restore their honor (or maybe not), but I think cutting off some fingers might be a good alternative. And it will probably drastically improve their number counting.
I'm disappointed, but I can't say I'm surprised. I always doubt rosy-sounding claims like "50% recycled". When it sounds too good to be true, it often is. I hope they'll clean up their act now, at least. Being honest about it is a good start. Now all they need to do is live up to their claims. And it'd be nice if they invested some of the money they earned by lying, in something worth-while. I don't mean bribes.
The Leader of a company admits that they lied to the public for well over 10 years, and the 'honorable' thing to do is to 'just' step down ? Wow, Japan sure has changed...
Next thing we know they'll be telling us the truth about dolphin kills and illegal whaling.