A key pillar of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's program to remake the economy is raising Japan Inc.'s global game. His government introduced a U.K.-like stewardship code to give shareholders a bigger voice, prodded boards to hire more outside directors and launched a stock index showcasing 400 well-management Japanese companies. And here comes Takata, hogging global headlines and making a mockery of efforts to make wayward CEOs more accountable.

Shigehisa Takada personifies how old Japan is stymieing Abe's plan to create a new, more international corporate sector. The scion of the 82 year-old Takata dynasty pulled a disappearing act last year amid a global outcry over mounting air bag deaths and injuries. So impressed was Takada by U.S. Senate hearings — and a grand jury subpoena — in November 2014 that he sent underlings in his place.

In the 12 months since, the scandal took on a life of its own and tripped up many Japan Inc. icons. Last Wednesday, Honda Motor Co. broke ranks, saying it won't use Takata's inflators in future models amid charges the supplier manipulated and misrepresented safety data. The news broke a day after U.S. regulators hit Takata with a $70 million fine.