Photo/Illutration Hiroyuki Kaneshige announces his resignation as president of Bigmotor Co. on July 25. (Shota Tomonaga)

The mother of Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263), a regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, busied herself with shoji screen repairs when her son was due to visit.

She used a small dagger to cut out the torn parts and papered them over.

When someone pointed out that she could probably get the job done faster by ripping out all the paper and repapering the entire screen, she responded: "I want young people to learn that when something is damaged they need to repair only the damaged parts."

In short, she believed in taking good care of property, which was the moral of the story as recounted in "Tsurezuregusa" (Essays in Idleness) by the Buddhist monk Kenko (1283-1350).

I imagine she would pass out if she heard about the business practices at Bigmotor Co., a major used car dealer and repair chain.

The company was questioned on July 26 by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

A report compiled by attorneys and others contains incredible accounts.

Bigmotor employees intentionally damaged cars by scratching them with a screwdriver and whacking them with socks filled with golf balls, so that they could send inflated repair bills to auto insurance companies.

At a news conference on July 25, President Hiroyuki Kaneshige announced his resignation. Then with a straight face he lashed out at workers who had used golf balls to trash the cars, for “(committing) the ultimate sacrilege against golf lovers.”

There are times when one can only laugh because something is so ridiculous, and I believe Kaneshige's outburst was a perfect example of this.

It never occurred to him that his customers and car lovers were the first people to whom he owed his deepest apology for the sacrilege committed by his company.

There was something decidedly off and insincere about Kaneshige's news conference. This must have distressed the company's more conscientious workers, who had already been forced to meet unrealistically ambitious performance targets and were ruthlessly demoted if they failed.

Following the news conference, the company reportedly required its employees to delete any LINE messaging accounts containing work-related exchanges. The purge was said to be part of the "first stage of reforms."

In "Tsurezuregusa," Kenko declared that mistakes are made when one loses respect for people who have become familiar.

I could not agree more. No company will ever do well if it deceives its customers and treats its workers shoddily.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 27

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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