Can Japan's anger bring reform?

William Pesek is a Tokyo-based columnist for Bloomberg News.

Something fascinating is afoot in Japan, even as the country was rocked again in a 7.1 aftershock yesterday: anger. People are fuming about the nuclear crisis that put their nation in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The response is restrained compared with the perpetually aggrieved tea party crowd in the United States, or Chinese who lash out at anyone abroad with the slightest criticism. Japan's 127 million people have a world of defaults before hitting on outrage, so important are harmony, social cohesion and saving face.

But they're having none of that as they watch the hapless Tokyo Electric Power Co. operate amid Japan's worst crisis since World War II. The public is realizing that Tepco is a microcosm of much of what ails Japan. It embodies the incestuous ties between government and industry and an antiquated economic model that undermines Japan's place in the world.

Tepco's failings were exposed by March 11's record earthquake and devastating tsunami, which led to breakdowns and radiation leaks at Tepco's Fukushima nuclear plant. There's growing recognition that the crisis might uncover manifold examples of the bureaucracy, inefficiencies, poor strategic planning, and lack of vision for a new and better future that hobbles Japan Inc.

For all of that, Tepco has become the poster child. The cluelessness with which it's operating, with the eyes of the world fixed on Fukushima, is trying the national patience like nothing since the 1940s. Once one of Japan's proudest names, Tepco is now seen by some in the same toxic class as Enron or Lehman Brothers. Each day brings new disclosures about how Tepco doctored safety reports and underestimated risks, all without holding responsible the company directors who continue to collect their salaries, never mind keep their jobs.

Still, Japan's media has offered only muted criticism of Tepco. One reason is respect for the engineers and workers risking their lives for the rest of the nation. We are all in awe of their brave, tireless efforts. And local journalists don't want to cause panic, so punches are being pulled.

Still, media reports are taking on more ominous tones as we learn radioactive materials will be leaking for months. Tepco executives are receiving threats and finding their home addresses posted on the Internet. The company has covered signs at Tepco-employee dormitories and beefed up security.

It's important to note, though, that this story is bigger than Tepco. The lack of transparency that has been the hallmark of the Fukushima crisis is found much more broadly in corporate Japan. There's a reason thousands of companies still hold their shareholder meetings on the same day. This ploy limits the risk of probing questions from the floor, a stark reminder that investor rights remain a novel idea.

The Japanese people are now asking about their rights, and it will be interesting to see where the question leads. In 2009, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan tossed out the Liberal Democratic Party, which had run Japan for 54 virtually uninterrupted years. The LPD coddled Tepco for decades, allowed unaccountable executives to ride roughshod over the nation and burdened Japan with the largest public debt of any developed nation.

Kan often says the right things about putting Japan on more stable footing; the problem is the execution. This crisis provide's Kan with an opportunity to pull a Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR used anger toward bankers in the 1930s to remake the economy, just as Ronald Reagan used an uncompromising stand against striking air traffic controllers in 1981 as a battle cry for broader change.

Japan is a terrific place to live. It's efficient, clean, prosperous, well-educated and reasonably crime-free. Yet it is run by a generation of insular and barely accountable politicians, bureaucrats and executives with a poor sense of just how rapidly the world around them is evolving. Kan has shown he sees the bigger picture. Now is the perfect time to change things.