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Comment by vardump | Hacker News Reader

Assuming everything is reported fairly, I really can't imagine being Nichia's customer. Ever.

Sacking and not compensating the employee that single-handedly made Nichia successful by inventing a working blue LED and saving Nichia from bankruptcy is just not acceptable.

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I agree with you. It says the original CEO was a researcher himself and that's why he understood the risks funded the request. Things changed after his son-in-law took control as CEO. It doesn't mention if the son-n-law had any background in the industry or semiconductor research, or was just appointed CEO just because he was the son-in-law. I think that's where the company went wrong.

Destruction of Japanese companies by "management types" sounds like a theme that gets repeated over and over. Sony/Nissan is probably the most egregious one.

I guess this is a universal; most US companies were killed off by similar thought-process.

It's complicated.

For 1 employee which disobeyed orders and saved the company you'll have 99 which disobeyed orders and don't produce anything useful or even made harm.

This is called the Halo effect.

Yes, but the odds that someone who invents the blue LED also invents something else amazing is much better than a random employee who did not invent the blue LED inventing something amazing.

Well, if they really thought it was a waste of time, they could have fired him in the first few years, but instead they kept funding his research. The company was doing one thing with its right hand, and something entirely different with its left.

I'm not saying the halo effect isn't real or not applicable here. But a multi-billion dollar invention warrants Extenuating Circumstances, and it's oh so very convenient that the CEO can say "well we don't want to inspire this kind of behavior in other employees!" after the profits are realized.

I think it would have been reasonable to fire him before he made the breakthrough. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. Its his treatment after success that seemed egregious.

It is extremely difficult to fire employees in Japan. Disobeying orders is in general not a fireable offense.

I'm not sure it is the Halo effect here. Imagine how much more money they would have made if more employees ignored the new CEO, or if there was a different CEO.

The Nichia 519A is a one of the favourite LEDs in the enthusiast flashlight world.

It's a high CRI quite bright LED, and I have to shamefully admit that I specifically specced a light in the past with this LED.

Before I knew about this, that is.

Example write-up to see what flashlight nerds talk about: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/nichia-519a/64360/43

I always knew there was a reason I preferred the LH351D

Like the other person said, nichia makes good LEDs. They make a UV free LED. https://led-ld.nichia.co.jp/en/product/lighting_optisolis.ht...

Totally. I actually went to check mouser to see if they had nichia brand stuff - a few odds and ends but they're not even listed on the manufacturer list for LEDs.

Will watch out for them and avoid whenever possible from now on.

I feel like the engineer who invented the blue LED would not want this story to cause a boycott of Nichia despite their treatment of him.

We don't know that for sure, and either way, I'm capable of making my own judgement calls.

I can, though indirectly.

Odds are good I've bought hundreds of consumer goods with Nichia LEDs in it without knowing, and I'll probably buy hundreds more.

(Not that I'm endorsing not caring, just pointing out how frustratingly hard it is to avoid giving money to companies like this.)

This makes more sense having learned more about Japanese business culture and the concept of salarymen.

They didn't sack him, he quit for better pay.

In Japan companies rarely sack employees and employees rarely quit. People are expected to stay with the same company basically their whole life. That's why he didn't get fired for disobeying orders. Firing someone in Japan is somewhat socially taboo (just like quitting) and therefore rare.

In Japan, companies are considered to be like "family". It would be kind of a joke here in the USA, but in Japan there is a lot of loyalty in both directions.

Part of the reason they sued him is probably the butthurt of him quitting. Quitting, even for better pay, is kind of like a big "fuck you" in Japan.

That's sort of true (less so these days), but it's also quite common for companies to treat undesired people like crap in order to drive them to quit. It's what they do instead of firing in the lifetime employment model -- you've been promoted to head of the floor-sweeping department. Ganbatte!

I don't know if that was going on here, but it sure sounds like it. (It could also be that the actual story is completely different than reported here, of course.)

> treat undesired people like crap in order to drive them to quit

There is a Japanese word for it:

追い出し部屋 Oidashibeya https://jlearn.net/dictionary/追い出し部屋

A crappy NYT article but gives the idea: https://archive.ph/k84cb

That's how many U.S. corps still were back in the late Eighties, early Nineties when I started working. I remember the first layoffs in my division and how shocked everyone was.

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