Toyota warns NASCAR teams against cheating....

[G.Irish]

Asian culture values honor very highly and it is not surprising that they would take a very public issue like this very seriously.

I can't speak for all of Asia but in Japanese culture honor is very highly valued but its not quite as simple as that. Typically every attempt is made to not lose face in public but it doesn't mean that a company like Toyota won't cheat.

Toyota got in trouble with the Japanese government a few years ago over helping their dealership techs cheat on government administered exam, they got caught with Ferrari technical data in Formula 1 (stolen by former Ferrari employees), and back in the 90's they got banned from WRC for cheating. Here's an article from pitpass about the aforementioned incidents: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_feature_item.php?fes_art_id=10682">http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_ ... t_id=10682</a><!-- m -->

Pitpass editorializes a bit there so I wouldn't demonize them from that article, but it just tells a little bit about some of the stuff they've done over the years. And that's not even getting into the political controversy in CART a few years back.

So honor is a big thing, but that doesn't mean they're above cheating. Mugen's president got in trouble for embezzlement (that's why they're now called M-Tec), Mitsubishi got in trouble for covering up a recall, and I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of Japanese manufacturers pulling shady stuff. I wouldn't say they're particularly dishonest, they're probably more honest than most, but they're not perfect.