At the July 21 press conference, Tanaka admitted that Toshiba had suffered “what could be the biggest erosion of our brand image in our 140-year history.” The motivation for the improprieties and the chain of command involved in their implementation remain unclear, but a major contributing factor cited in the investigation committee’s report was a “corporate culture where employees cannot act contrary to the intent of superiors.” At Toshiba, executives put top priority on the financial results for the current accounting period, placing severe pressure on subordinates to improve the figures for their business units. Faced with no alternative but to bend to executive demands, those lower down in the company turned to cooking the books.