Tokyo accountant Norichika Wada has shaken the cosy Japanese consensus society to its core by launching a lawsuit against the government on the grounds that when it floated small tranches of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp shares, it failed to disclose that the company might in future be broken up: the talk of breaking up NTT has had a distressing effect on its share price – even though only the Japanese are nuts enough to buy a utility on between 100 and 150 times earnings – and he is seeking a modest $10,200 in compensation for the money he lost selling 40 of his 80 shares in the telephone company.
