CASE STUDY :

AND FORCED LABOUR

 CASE INTRODUCTION

• During World War II, Mitsubishi was

used forced labor in coal mining.

• Inferior environment was provided by

Mitsubishi, by complying ‘Guidelines for
Controlling Imported Chinese
Labourers’.

• Example : Worker death rate = 25%, 12-

hours shift

• No formal apologize statement was

made up until now

• Only 10% of victim remain survive as of

current
Question 1: Apply one theory of ethics to access
whether Mitsubishi’s position can be regarded as
ethical.

Theory apply: Consequentialism

Decision: Ethical

Reason:

• Judge decision ethical according to the outcome

• According to utilitarianism, sacrifice minority interest-> for

majority interest -> decision is ethical

• Sacrifice 2709 Chinese labourers -> boosts up the

productivity and profit of Mitsubishi

• Strengthen the financial position of Mitsubishi by that time

and supply sufficient career opportunity to Japanese
citizen

• Obey rules set up by Japanese government, to maintain

intimate relationship with government
QUESTION 2 : What problems occurred when
applying the theory of ethics to the case? Do
these relate to criticism presented on the theory?
• What counts the BASIC VALUE? How to explain the decision
made?

• Fanatics! “THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS!”.

• SACRIFICE MINORITY for the benefit of majority. Are the lives of

forced labour are less valuable than the majorities?

Common in business world of decision making.

COST-BENEFITS ANALYSIS.
QUESTION 3 : Given the position of the Japanese
government, what should Mitsubishi do to behave
ethically?

• Release a public statement to clarify their position and apologize

to public regarding their unfair treatment toward human right

• Pay compensation to victims or it family who impacted by these

issues

• Set up a foundation, getting trust fund for Corporate Social

Responsibility activities, create awareness of consequence of war
and educate society regarding the importance of peaceful
negotiation
Mitsubishi to compensate forced Chinese laborers from WWII
Published on Jul 25, 2015
Japan's Kyodo News agency reports that the construction company Mitsubishi
Materials plans to apologize to forced laborers from China during World War Two and
to compensate them financially. It will be the first time that a Japanese company has
apologized to Chinese war victims. Wu Haojun filed this report.
 Conclusion:
• Every ethical theories can be categorized in terms of their focus
on particular aspect of the process of decision making

• Each theory may have different process how to be implement and

have different implication to each issues

• There is no right or wrong to assess ethics case but how the

process to reach a good justification is more important

• What consider ethically today may not be consider ethically in

future