The 88 th Safety Caravan (Impromptu Safety Caravan) was conducted at the Keihin Product Operations of Toshiba Corporation in Tsurumi-Ku, Yokohama , Kanagawa Prefecture on October 13, 2006.

One hundred twelve (112) employees at Toshiba Corporation's Keihin Product Operations attended the Safety Presentation.

The presentation began with a salutation from Mr. Norio Sasaki, Operating Officer and Managing Director of Toshiba Corporation and President of Power Systems Company. "I would like to thank Mr. Ishikawa, Chairman of the Board of Japan Nuclear Technology Institute (JANTI), and Dr. Fudano from Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) for their presences at today's Safety Caravan. We have experienced a case of non-compliance in nuclear power generation, or specifically, falsification of data. In regard to how we carry out our endeavors and campaigns hereafter, I ask all of you to listen attentively to today's lectures and pick out one or two items that we can adopt into our activities.

"Members of the JANTI team have been with us since yesterday, observing the flowmeter test facilities site in order to determine how this situation came about. I believe we will hear an abundance of suggestions based on this. In regard to this situation we are responsible for causing, how should we think about it and what should we do about it have been investigated and reported on, and our awareness is changing in many respects. I would say that even though awareness is definitely changing, from both the psychological standpoint and the intellectual standpoint, we still have the inclination to think inside the box. With this in mind, in this Safety Caravan we should listen to the talks coming from a different dimension, and in addition to adopting a fresh spirit in our minds, we should hold onto this as food for thought hereafter. Thank you very much."

After the salutation, Mr. Ishikawa, Chairman of the Board of Japan Nuclear Technology Institute delivered a lecture, followed by Dr. Jun Fudano, professor at the Engineering Department of Kanazawa Institute of Technology who gave us a valuable lecture on the topic of "Invigorating Engineers' Ethics -- What are the Values that Engineers should Share."

Lecture highlights

1. Ethics of engineers and researchers and the characteristics thereof

2. Engineers' ethics and corporate/organizational ethics

3. Engineers' ethics and values sharing program

4. Proposal: toward the creation of an engineers' ethics program aimed at sharing values

These and other worthy talks were presented. In the questionnaire after the presentation, the following opinions were expressed.

• I came to understand that regardless of how impressive the conduct standards and system are, if they are not put into actual practice, they are completely useless. I also felt that it is important for engineers' ethics to have a concept of values as a matter of course. I came to think that by having a broad scaled concept of ethics from a global perspective instead of getting bogged down with a concept of values as seen from a single enterprise, one would be able to make the appropriate judgment. While it would be ideal if everyone at Toshiba Keihin Product Operations had the same concept of values when it comes to engineers' ethics, this lecture session has instilled me with my own personal desire to try to get a step closer to the ideal.

•Thank you sincerely for the very precious lectures. I found the lecture to be extremely informative in that it made me aware that there are many different ways of thinking in regard to the wide variety of angles from which "engineers' ethics" can be seen. By ensuring the thoroughness of "engineers' ethics," there is no question that it becomes the mold for compliance, but this is given to succumbing in the direction of "constraint" or "shackles." Hereafter I hope to have discussions with my colleagues within our group on how our day to day duties ought to be performed so as to move as close as possible toward establishing a set of shared values.

• I would like to express my sincere thanks for the most beneficial lectures. I was very deeply impressed to know of the endeavors that are being made both at home and abroad to maintain and improve engineers' ethics for some time now and at the same time my awareness of the importance of engineers' ethics was renewed. Of course it is not as though we never had any ethics training at all in our workplace, but then again neither do I feel that we are not given to being behind in such matters. I think by now we have made considerable progress toward recovery, but I feel that hereafter we will still need to make steady effort so as not to neglect ethics training.

Safety information exchange session

Safety information exchange session

Mr. Yasuhiro Shimizu, plant manager of the Toshiba Corporation Keihin Product Operations spoke about "state of endeavors in regard to the flowmeter impropriety problem" at the safety information exchange session. The session was also honored by the presence of Mr. Hiroshi Sakuta from the Institute of Social Research, Institute of Nuclear Safety System Incorporated who gave a detailed introduction to "checkpoints when faced with ethical questions."

After the talk, opinions were exchanged regarding the above mentioned endeavors.

NB: This Safety Caravan was conducted at the request of Toshiba Corporation, and is called an Impromptu Safety Caravan.