Thanks, Tom, for sharing your experience and the enlightening anecdote. Unfortunately, that's not anecdotal evidence but common practice today. Colleagues of mine who need to produce papers for their habilitation (probably a unique thing here in Germany) also need to list their habilitation supervisors as co-authors. In most cases, aside from their names, they don't add any value to the papers.

Thanks for your suggestion to authro an article about research in Japan. I must admit that my knowledge about this subject is very limited (a euphemism for not having a clue about it) which is why I have to carefully consider your request. I have made it my principal to only write about subjects that are within my area of competence.