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Toyota ranks highest in ethical reputation study
Geneva, Switzerland – Toyota has ranked highest among automakers and second among all industries for ethical reputation by Geneva-based Covalence. The ratings, for the first quarter of 2008, are divided by Best EthicalQuote Score, Best EthicalQuote Progress, and Best Reported Progress.

Covalence rates companies by such factors as community affairs, international presence, lobbying practices, product environmental risk, social sponsorship, waste management and human rights, and to a lesser extent, wages, anticorruption policy, environmental impact of production, social impact, United Nations policy and eco-innovative product. Twenty multinational companies are analyzed in ten major sectors.

Best EthicalQuote Score and Best EthicalQuote Progress are calculated by evaluating positive and negative news, while Best Reported Performance is calculated by quantifying positive news only.

Overall, Toyota ranked second to Unilever for Best EthicalQuote Score. In Best EthicalQuote Progress, Toyota ranked second behind Wal-Mart, while General Motors placed fourth. In Best Reported Performance, Wal-Mart was ranked first, followed by Toyota in second and General Motors in third. These were the only two automakers to make the list of leaders across all sectors.

Among Automobiles & Parts, Best EthicalQuote Score rankings were, in order, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Honda, BMW, Daimler, Renault, Nissan, Peugeot and Denso. Best EthicalQuote Progress rankings, in order, were Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Mazda, Renault, Denso and Daimler. Under Best Reported Performance, the companies, in order, were Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Renault, Mazda, Daimler and Volkswagen. Read Article



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stash84stash84 - 4/17/2008 2:08:04 PM
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i dont know much about the subject but it does sound like "provoking"

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RupertRupert - 4/17/2008 3:08:34 PMView My AgentSpace
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Well Japan had invaded China and killed more people than the holocaust ever did...they were hardly ethical. Read up on the Rape of Nanking.

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RupertRupert - 4/17/2008 3:12:27 PMView My AgentSpace
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Additionally: 'On August 6, 1937, Hirohito personally ratified his army's proposition to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_nanking#Historical_background

And they didn't kill more than the holocaust in the Rape of Nanking, I was wrong. Still, 250,000 in a few weeks is a lot. All civilians.

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_43LE_43LE - 4/17/2008 3:28:49 PM
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How many civilians have died as a result the the Vietnam and Iraq War?

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0to600to60 - 4/17/2008 4:03:14 PM
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Thanks 43LE. Its so easy to tell someone else their shit stinks without first smelling your own!

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RupertRupert - 4/17/2008 6:48:30 PMView My AgentSpace
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I don't know how many have died, and I don't particularly care about Vietnam, my country was never involved in that.
Iraq's a thorny issue, and meaningful stats are hard to come buy. Most records of civilian deaths are made by asking 'do you know someone who has died'. Very unreliable.
However, your question is rather odd. The Japanese government and army deliberately killed civilians, and a lot of them, in a very short period of time. 1000 rapes a night was what one commentator said, just in one city.
The US, for all its failings, does have the side of 'morality'. Very misguided morality, maybe, but at least they're trying. And the US have never (as far as I know) killed 250000 civilians in 6 weeks. Not just young male civilians, but children, babies, women and the elderly. Think about it. We all love US bashing, but what the Japanese did is a largely overlooked atrocity.

And 'as a result of' is a very different thing to 'murdered'.

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M35MTM35MT - 4/18/2008 8:11:52 AMView My AgentSpace
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Rupert - the difference is - Hitler attempted to exterminate an entire people based on their religion, for the benefit of the "superior race".

There is nothing more F'd then that.

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TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/17/2008 12:11:47 PMView My AgentSpace
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Imagine how well Toyota would do if they didn't force their employees to work 80 hours of overtime each month for *no* overtime pay.

[Quote]

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10329261

Death by overwork in Japan

Dec 19th 2007 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition

Japanese employees are working themselves to death


HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi, “death by overwork”. Since this was legally recognised as a cause of death in the 1980s, the number of cases submitted to the government for the designation has soared; so has the number of court cases that result when the government refuses an application. In 1988 only about 4% of applications were successful. By 2005 that share had risen to 40%. If a death is judged karoshi, surviving family members may receive compensation of around $20,000 a year from the government and sometimes up to $1m from the company in damages. For deaths not designated karoshi the family gets next to nothing.

Now a recent court ruling has put companies under pressure to change their ways. On November 30th the Nagoya District Court accepted Hiroko Uchino's claim that her husband, Kenichi, a third-generation Toyota employee, was a victim of karoshi when he died in 2002 at the age of 30. He collapsed at 4am at work, having put in more than 80 hours of overtime each month for six months before his death. “The moment when I am happiest is when I can sleep,” Mr Uchino told his wife the week of his death. He left two children, aged one and three.

As a manager of quality control, Mr Uchino was constantly training workers, attending meetings and writing reports when not on the production line. Toyota treated almost all that time as voluntary and unpaid. So did the Toyota Labour Standards Inspection Office, part of the labour ministry. But the court ruled that the long hours were an integral part of his job. On December 14th the government decided not to appeal against the verdict.

The ruling is important because it may increase the pressure on companies to treat “free overtime” (work that an employee is obliged to perform but not paid for) as paid work. That would send shockwaves through corporate Japan, where long, long hours are the norm.

Official figures say that the Japanese work about 1,780 hours a year, slightly less than Americans (1,800 hours a year), though more than Germans (1,440). But the statistics are misleading because they do not count “free overtime”. Other tallies show that one in three men aged 30 to 40 works over 60 hours a week. Half say they get no overtime. Factory workers arrive early and stay late, without pay. Training at weekends may be uncompensated.

During the past 20 years of economic doldrums, many companies have replaced full-time workers with part-time ones. Regular staff who remain benefit from lifetime employment but feel obliged to work extra hours lest their positions be made te

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TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/17/2008 12:13:26 PMView My AgentSpace
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lest their positions be made temporary. Cultural factors reinforce these trends. Hard work is respected as the cornerstone of Japan's post-war economic miracle. The value of self-sacrifice puts the benefit of the group above that of the individual.

Toyota, which is challenging GM as the world's largest carmaker, is often praised for the efficiency and flexibility of its workforce. Ms Uchino has a different view. “It is because so many people work free overtime that Toyota reaps profits,” she says. “I hope some of those profits can be brought back to help the employees and their families. That would make Toyota a true global leader.” The company is promising to prevent karoshi in future.

[/Quote]


_43LE_43LE - 4/17/2008 1:23:01 PM
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It's funny that when positive news about a Japanese company gets posted people tend to say negative things, borderline xenophobic/racial. However, when positive news about German car companies gets posted most congratulate those companies. Just another example of the double standard here on Autospies.

Thanks Turbo/midengine/sport!


TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/17/2008 3:43:14 PMView My AgentSpace
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"Just another example of the double standard here on Autospies."


You're right that it's a double standard. Just imagine if it was Volkswagen or Mercedes that forced its employees to work 80 hours of overtime each month and that people died from over work. You wouldn't hear the end of it on these forums.



TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/17/2008 3:45:19 PMView My AgentSpace
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*80 hours of overtime each month for zero overtime pay*


_43LE_43LE - 4/17/2008 4:18:54 PM
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"You're right that it's a double standard. Just imagine if it was Volkswagen or Mercedes that forced its employees to work 80 hours of overtime each month and that people died from over work. You wouldn't hear the end of it on these forums. "

You're wrong on that one. If that were the case, people would be praising the Germans for their great work ethic and dedication to high quality, bla bla bla. In this case, all I see is criticism for the Japanese.


TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/17/2008 6:35:26 PMView My AgentSpace
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"If that were the case, people would be praising the Germans for their great work ethic and dedication to high quality, bla bla bla..."



No way. If a German company behaved that way, the EU would even get involved and censure or fine the German government for allowing it and there'd be protesters outside all of the VW and Mercedes dealerships screaming about slave workers but because it's a Japanese company they get the top prize in a "highest ethical reputation" study.



_43LE_43LE - 4/18/2008 2:37:14 PM
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You're not making sense. The award was not given because they work so hard. It was given for these reasons:

community affairs, international presence, lobbying practices, product environmental risk, social sponsorship, waste management and human rights, and to a lesser extent, wages, anticorruption policy, environmental impact of production, social impact, United Nations policy and eco-innovative product.

I'm just saying that here on autospies, if a German car company won the award, everyone would say how great they are. When it's a Japanese company that gets this award (based on the above criteria) people become negative. It had nothing to do with working overtime. You have your issues mixed up.


TurboSpyderTurboSpyder - 4/18/2008 4:13:53 PMView My AgentSpace
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I don't care what criteria Covalence is using. Death by overwork has a name in Japan - karoshi - and the Japanese government is taking Toyota to court over the claim that it is guilty of working some of its employees to death. That excludes Toyota from being an ethical company.


hatepussshatepusss - 4/17/2008 3:01:07 PM
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So did the German. That was in the past. What is your point in the current affair?

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MichaelTaylorMichaelTaylor - 4/17/2008 5:10:40 PM
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oscarseahoscarseah - 4/17/2008 11:38:51 PM
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fact: toyota cars are very reliable
fact: japanese did invade china and kill a lot of people in the past
fact: german did kill a lot people in the past

whether covalence is ethical in conducting this so-called ethical survey: no one knows.

and i don't think japanese and toyota is ethical

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agent507agent507 - 4/18/2008 4:49:22 AM
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and now that the germans are involved in the discussion we can add to the facts list:

fact: china did kill a lot of people in the past
fact: US did kill a lot of people in the past
fact: Great Britain did kill a lot of people in the past
fact: Spain did kill a lot of people in the past
fact: Russia did kill a lot of people in the past
fact: Italy did kill a lot of people in the past
...

WTF? Guys, please, let us learn from history, live today and change things for the future. And discussion like the above won´t do anything close to that.


Htay7500Htay7500 - 4/18/2008 8:55:52 AM
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when Adolf Hitler was in power, he commited genocide of more than 6 million jews. more than double of what japan did to china and the US during WWII.

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Htay7500Htay7500 - 4/18/2008 9:05:58 AM
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and he joined forces with facist Italy and the Empire of Japan which became the axis powers, conquering all of continental europe, going against GB and the US. but you sound really uneducated, so none of this means anything to you.

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_43LE_43LE - 4/18/2008 2:40:50 PM
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I don't believe in people that don't believe the holocaust. What rock have you been living under? Or, are you just being a troll here?

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RupertRupert - 4/18/2008 2:51:23 PMView My AgentSpace
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Then you're a f***tard.

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RupertRupert - 4/18/2008 2:51:52 PMView My AgentSpace
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By the way you can be sent to prison for saying that in Austria.

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Htay7500Htay7500 - 4/18/2008 6:58:05 PM
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somebody ban this uneducated, antisemitic redneck.

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lexusrox123lexusrox123 - 4/18/2008 8:48:14 PM
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i cant believe evilm! at first i thought he was a stupid german fanboy. "i dont believe in the holocaust," LOL! now i know that evilm is REALLY stupid!
btw, in addition to 6 mil murdered jews, nazis killed 5 mil non-jews (homos, gypsies, anyone in hitlers way)


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Htay7500Htay7500 - 4/18/2008 8:59:56 PM
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"btw, in addition to 6 mil murdered jews, nazis killed 5 mil non-jews (homos, gypsies, anyone in hitlers way)"

and the mentally disabled.

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RupertRupert - 4/19/2008 8:58:21 AMView My AgentSpace
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And the physically disabled - blind, deaf, crippled etc.
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