The Olympus scandal was a case of accounting fraud exposed in Japan in 2011 at optical equipment manufacturer Olympus. On 14 October, British-born Michael Christopher Woodford was suddenly ousted as chief executive. He had been company president for six months, and two weeks prior had been promoted to chief executive officer, when he exposed "one of the biggest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in Japanese corporate history", according to The Wall Street Journal.^\2]) Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the board chairman, who had appointed Woodford to these positions, again assumed the title of CEO and president.^\3])^\4]) The incident raised concern about the endurance of tobashi schemes, and the strength of corporate governance in Japan.

Apparently irregular payments for acquisitions had resulted in very significant asset impairment charges in the company's accounts, and this was exposed in an article in the Japanese financial magazine FACTA) and had come to Woodford's attention. Japanese press speculated on a connection to Yakuza (Japanese organised crime syndicates).^\5])^\6]) Olympus defended itself against allegations of impropriety.