Japan Demands Auto Industry Probe As Scandals Threaten Toyota

After decades of fraudulent activity at two Toyota Motor Corp. affiliates was discovered through a series of investigations, the Japanese government called on the country's auto industry to come clean.

Domestic automakers have been instructed by Transport Minister Tatsuo Saito to launch internal investigations into any wrongdoing, including attempts to evade certification tests, and to submit their results by the end of April.

“These scandals have damaged trust in Japan’s safety regulations,” Sato said Thursday, adding that a committee will be established to reexamine Japan’s vehicle regulations. “It’s regrettable, given it could lead to a crisis of faith in the country’s manufacturing industry.” In addition, the ministry issued a corrective order against Toyota Industries Ltd. for falsifying power output data related to certain diesel engine models.

Three of its engine types lost certification after the company's offices, along with Toyota and Hino Motors Ltd.'s, were inspected on-site by ministry representatives.

Following disclosures that its cars had not undergone adequate crash safety testing, Daihatsu Motor Co., another Toyota subsidiary, received the same directive last month. Daihatsu said on Tuesday that it will start producing three car models again in early March and four models again on February 26.

According to a Daihatsu spokesperson speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday night, the company started paying its partners and suppliers in mid-February.

On February 13, Toyota appointed Masahiro Inoue as CEO of Daihatsu, succeeding Soichiro Okudaira, in an effort to restore confidence in the truck division and the company's other group businesses.

The carmaker Daihatsu, which joined Toyota as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2016, came under fire in December after it was discovered through an internal probe that it had falsified crash safety test results going back to 1989.

The company, which makes light "kei" trucks that are well-liked by Japanese drivers, was forced to compensate partners following the scandal, which also caused it to halt domestic production.
Only a month later, Toyota Industries suffered a similar fate after a probe discovered irregularities in its power output tests.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda told reporters on Jan. 30 that the company "needs to return to basics" in order to recover from a series of recent scandals. For the record, another Toyota affiliate, Hino, was caught falsifying emissions data  in 2022.