Walking home on Monday afternoon last week through the picturesque and normally gore-free seaside city of Maizuru, a primary school pupil discovered a human fingertip lying on the road.

This was a traumatising horror for a small child, but arguably a bigger jolt for Japan as a whole and for corporate Japan in particular. The incident not only highlights an old and debilitating strain of fear, but also the urgent need to swop it for new and possibly useful ones.