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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
Jiji Press
16:25 JST, February 22, 2024
Tokyo (Jiji Press)—Japan’s transport ministry Thursday ordered Toyota Industries Corp. to drastically improve its organization following the company’s fraudulent engine performance tests.
The order was issued under the road transport vehicle law after on-site inspections by the ministry confirmed misconduct as reported by the company.
The ministry has begun procedures to revoke type approval for three engine models for industrial machinery.
Toyota Industries became the third company to receive the ministry’s correction order under the law, after Hino Motors Ltd. in September 2022 and Daihatsu Motor Co. in January this year. All three are linked to top automaker Toyota Motor Corp.
The ministry told Toyota Industries to submit measures to prevent a recurrence within a month. It will decide the revocation after holding a hearing session Feb. 29 with Toyota Industries officials.
The ministry has also ordered automakers and others to report the results of in-house investigations by the end of April in response to a series of irregularities related to type approval.
The ministry will set up an expert panel to discuss ways to strengthen regulatory requirements for type approval to prevent fraudulent acts, according to officials.
Hirohisa Tsuruta, director-general of the ministry’s logistics and road transport bureau, handed the correction order to Toyota Industries President Koichi Ito on Thursday, saying, “It’s extremely regrettable that (the company) has seriously damaged trust in the type designation system and hurt confidence in Japan’s manufacturing industry.”
“We will make a company-wide effort to prevent such a thing from happening ever again,” Ito replied.
The ministry plans to revoke type approval, necessary for mass production, for two forklift engine models and one construction machinery engine model.
The ministry concluded that the company’s malpractices regarding exhaust emission tests for the three models were especially malicious.
Since Jan. 30, ministry officials had conducted on-site inspections of the company’s Hekinan plant in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, and other facilities.
A report by a panel of outside experts said the company adopted numbers different from actual figures recorded in exhaust gas tests for engines of seven models, including those for forklifts, and three models for automobiles. Production for some models has already been terminated.
