TOKYO – A car company that hid dangerous flaws to avoid embarrassing recalls. A meat processor that sold ground pig hearts as beef. A fancy restaurant chain that served customers leftover sashimi from other diners.
一家汽車製造商隱瞞危險瑕疵，避免召回車子，顏面掃地。一家肉品處理商把絞碎的豬心當牛肉賣。一家高級連鎖餐廳拿其他客人吃剩的生魚片上菜。

In recent years, Japan’s faith in its corporate establishment has been shaken by a series of scandals in which companies have been caught in frauds ranging from the nauseating to the dangerous. More shocking than the misdeeds is the fact that employees are going public to reveal them.
近年來，日本企業爆發一連串魚目混珠被逮到的醜聞，讓日本人信心大失，這些醜聞從令人作嘔到置人於險境的都有。比這些不法行為更讓人震驚的，是企業員工竟公然爆料。

A decade ago, in Japan, a person’s place of employment was part of his identity, and company loyalty was the highest of virtues. But the unquestioningly obedient salaryman is becoming a relic, the result of a broader transformation of Japan and the global economy.
10年前的日本，在哪上班，是個人身分的一部分，對企業忠誠，是至高美德。然而絕對服從的上班族正逐漸變成遺聞，這是日本與全球經濟大幅轉型的後果。

When Japan had Asia’s hottest economy, companies could buy employee loyalty with guarantees of lifetime jobs, and a sense of belonging at a company that treated workers like family. But that social contract began disintegrating in the economic stagnation of the 1990s.
日本的經濟還是亞洲最佳時，企業可用終身工作保障買到員工的忠誠，企業待員工如家人，也讓員工有歸屬感。不過，這樣的社會契約在1990年代經濟不景氣時開始瓦解。

Now, lawyers and economists say Japanese workers are beginning to speak out, despite a still potent risk of ostracism because of the widely held view that such disclosure constitutes betrayal.
律師和經濟學家說現在日本勞工開始直言不諱，即使這麼做仍然很可能遭到排斥，因為一般人仍存有爆料就是背叛的心態。

“The company is losing its place at the center of the employee’s universe,” said Naoki Yanagida, an employment lawyer.
就業律師柳田直樹（音譯）說：「企業在員工的生活重心中越來越沒地位。」

The first high-profile case of corporate whistle-blower was in 2000, when an employee at Mitsubishi Motors exposed the company’s cover-up of accident-causing defects, including failing brakes and leaking fluids, generating investigations that led to arrests of executives and near bankruptcy for the automaker.
第一樁鬧得滿城風雨的揭發企業弊端案發生在2000年，三菱汽車公司一名員工抖出該公司掩瞞多項會造成意外事故的失誤，包括煞車失靈和煞車油滲漏，促使當局展開調查，公司多名主管被捕，差點破產。

Now, Japan routinely sees several scandals a year caused by employees airing corporate secrets.
現在，日本一年總會爆出好幾件員工爆料而引發的企業醜聞。

Yoichi Mizutani, 54, owned a refrigerated warehouse in the western city of Nishinomiya that did a booming business with local meat companies. Then one day in December 2001, an employee saw workers from one of his biggest customers, the meat processor Snow Brand, using his warehouse to put frozen slabs of Australian beef into boxes for sale as domestic meat.
54歲的水谷洋一在西部的西宮市有座冷凍倉庫，與當地多家肉品業者做生意，業務蒸蒸日上。2001年12月某天，一名員工目睹大客戶肉品處理商「雪印食品」員工用水谷的倉庫，把冷凍厚片澳洲牛肉放進箱子，當成國產肉品銷售。

He said such fraud is common in the meat industry, whose members are expected to observe a code of silence. He said his outrage boiled over when he called Snow Brand to ask about the incident, and was told to shut up. He eventually told two Japanese newspapers, generating a scandal that resulted in suspended prison terms for five executives.
他說，這種造假事件在肉品業屢見不鮮，業者都裝聾作啞。他說他打電話給雪印問這件事，對方卻要他別吭聲，把他氣炸了。後來他向兩家日本報社爆料，這件醜聞導致5名主管判處緩刑。

“I thought of how many small company owners in this industry, like me, lie awake at night, tormented by guilt over what they are doing,” Mr. Mizutani said. “The industry talks of itself as one big family, which protects its own. But injustice is injustice.”
「我想到這行不知有多少像我這樣的小公司老闆，夜裡輾轉難眠，為自己的行徑內疚，苦惱不已。」水谷說：「這行自詡是個保護自己人的大家庭，但是不公義就是不公義。」

After he went public, Mr. Mizutani said all meat companies shunned him, driving his warehouse out of business. Things took a turn for the better when his plight was reported by a local television news station. With donations from viewers, including a Buddhist temple, he restarted his warehouse business, this time dealing in frozen vegetables and seafood.
水谷說，他把事情公開後，所有肉品公司都迴避他，不和他的倉庫有往來。當地一家電視新聞台披露他的窘境後，情況才有所改善。憑著包括一間佛寺的觀眾捐款，他重振倉儲生意，這回做的是冷凍蔬菜和海鮮。

He also became a minor folk hero, starring in a comic strip that celebrates whistle-blowers. He now defiantly revels in his rebel status, shedding his gray suit for flip-flops, a T-shirt and dyed blond hair.
他成了小有名氣的民間英雄，在稱頌揭弊者的連環漫畫擔任要角。如今他沉醉在反抗權威的身分，脫掉灰色西裝，改穿人字拖鞋、T恤，還染了一頭金髮。

He said he has received several phone calls from people asking whether they should blow the whistle on misdeeds by their employers. “I ask them, ‘Are you prepared to lose your own arm and a leg? Because that is how hard it will be,’ ” he said.
他接到許多通詢問該不該告發老闆惡行的電話。他說：「我問對方：『你有沒有準備好要少一隻手和一條腿？』因為後果就會這麼不堪。」

The difficulties underscore the high personal costs of blowing the whistle in a group-oriented society that still frowns on individuals who stand out. Japan has so far greeted whistle-blowers with an ambivalent mixture of praise and ostracism. One of the most disturbing revelations for the Japanese has been just how rampant these swindles and frauds are.
這些困境凸顯出，在一個重視團體、仍然會對不願妥協的個人表達不滿的社會，糾舉弊案會讓個人付出極高代價。日本目前以讚揚與排斥皆有的矛盾心態看待揭發弊端的人。冒牌貨和誇大不實有多猖獗，向來是弊案爆發後日本人覺得最煩心的事情之一。

“Whistle-blowers are exposing problems that have probably existed for a long time, but were just hidden from sight,” said Koji Morioka, an economics professor at Kansai University.
關西大學經濟系教授森岡孝二說：「糾舉者揭發的問題或許存在已久，只是躲過眾人耳目罷了。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/business/worldbusiness/07whistle.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/07/business/whistle.php

2008-06-28/聯合報/C4版/教育 夏嘉玲 原文請見6月24日紐時周報五版中