Liberal Japan

What’s the obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the following?

43 Kyoto officials made false bereavement claims
The Kyoto municipal government announced Tuesday that 43 municipal government officials took bereavement leave after falsely claiming that relatives had died. The number of paid days off taken illegally as bereavement leave totaled 142 between April 2002 and June 2007, the municipal government said. The municipal government took disciplinary measures against 53 officials, including those who supervised the officials involved in the falsifications. Of these, 29 were suspended from work for three days to six months.

Is it that Japanese don’t have a penchant for the truth? No. (Despite what some might claim.)

Is it that you can’t trust government workers? No.

It’s this. Don’t qualify what days people can take off from work. Just give people a limited number of free days, and then dock their pay when they exceed this. Anything else forces the employer to pry into the personal life of the employee. Prying into anyone’s personal life is likely to produce lies. It should be avoided.

I bring this up because I know many who will leap at an article like this and use it as proof for their favorite nihonjinron theory, whatever it may be.