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Kobe Steel data scandal

Kobe Steel -- quality trap

High technical standards could have created room for cheating

| Japan
Kobe Steel President and CEO Hiroya Kawasaki attends a news conference in Tokyo on Oct. 13. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)

The Kobe Steel scandal has been widely blamed on everything from the company's management failures to the whole of Japanese corporate culture.

But one factor has so far not had enough attention: I believe the company's high technological skills could -- paradoxically -- have paved the way to its dishonesty.

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