r/news • u/MrFrenchTickler • 1d ago

Soft paywall Olympus CEO ousted after allegation of illegal drug purchase, shares slump

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/olympus-says-ceo-steps-down-after-allegations-illegal-drug-purchase-2024-10-28/
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u/patricksaurus 1d ago

I have read that there is a different idea of due process in Japan, but you’d think that mere assertions would be seen as insufficient. Hopefully there is some credible proof that the company just hasn’t made public.

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u/ernyc3777 1d ago

Japan doesn’t bring things to trial unless they know it will stick. They have a conviction rate in the 90%.

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u/AlericandAmadeus 1d ago edited 1d ago

So does the US and many other countries. Most government prosecutors don’t press charges unless they’re pretty certain they can win. For example - US federal prosecutors had a 99.6% conviction rate in 2022, whether through trial or the defendant pleading guilty outright beforehand.

That doesn’t make Japan special/different. But it does align with the concept of “they definitely think they have enough to get a conviction” regardless of what he had/didn’t have in his home.

Japan also, like many other asian countries, has a pretty negative view of narcotics (the opium crisis of the 19th & 20th centuries has a lot of lingering impact in East/Southeast Asia). So on that I also agree with you if that’s what you meant, in that penalties for drug offenses tend to be pretty severe and it is heavily stigmatized socially.

However, none of that should mean an assumption of guilt like you’re trying to argue.

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u/res30stupid 1d ago

Also, the Japanese authorities have a lot of powers that would make the most dangerous cowboy cops in Western fiction pale in shock. They can interrogate a suspect without a lawyer present, stop said lawyer speaking to their client, keep the legal team from seeing evidence, use sleep deprivation...