Toshiba's historic corporate downfall stemmed from a combination of aggressive, ill-timed strategic pivots, massive financial accounting scandals, and heavy losses in its nuclear energy sector. In 2015, a sweeping accounting scandal revealed that the company had systematically overstated its profits for several years. This crisis was compounded by billions of dollars in catastrophic cost overruns at Westinghouse Electric, its American nuclear subsidiary, forcing Toshiba to sell off crown-jewel assets—including its memory chip division, medical equipment arm, and television business—to stave off bankruptcy and restructure its operations.