Honda and Mazda Under Inspection in Japan for Alleged Data Fraud
TapTechNews June 10 news, according to the report of Japan's Kyodo News Agency, after Toyota Motor, Yamaha Motor, and Suzuki were inspected, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan today conducted an on-site inspection of the headquarters of Honda in Minato-ku, Tokyo and the headquarters of Mazda in Fuchu-cho, Hiroshima Prefecture.
The report said that around 9:00 a.m. today, the relevant personnel of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan entered the Honda headquarters, and the atmosphere was quite serious. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan stated that the 22 models previously produced by Honda, including the Fit, had false contents in the noise test reports during the period from 2009 to 2017. Since the currently produced models are not in violation, the relevant departments have not instructed it to stop shipping.
It is known that after the data fraud incident was exposed, the five companies involved all stated that there is no problem with the product safety, but the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan said that while inspecting, it will test whether the models with irregular problems meet the performance standards related to safety and environmental protection. If they meet the standards, the instruction to stop shipping will be lifted, and if they do not meet, the manufacturer will be guided to consider a recall.
TapTechNews attached the previous recap:
June 3: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan issued an announcement stating that in view of the successive occurrence of irregular behaviors in the process of obtaining the type certification required for the mass production of automobiles and engines by companies such as Japan's Daihatsu Industry, the department instructed a total of 85 automobile production companies to investigate whether there are similar situations. As of the end of May, a total of 5 companies including Toyota Motor, Mazda, Yamaha Motor, Honda R & D Industry and Suzuki had false behaviors in vehicle performance testing, etc., and these 5 companies will be investigated according to the Road Transport Vehicle Law.
June 3: Toyota Motor announced that according to the instructions of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, it conducted an investigation into its model certification application on January 26 this year. Although the investigation is still ongoing, the test methods of seven models (including some models that have been停产 (out of production) since 2014) do not conform to the government standards, and the company has reported this situation to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan on May 31.
June 3: Executives of Toyota, Honda, and Mazda held press conferences respectively to apologize for this matter. Akio Toyoda, the president of the Toyota Group, said at the press conference, Fraud is a matter of principle that shakes the certification system and is something that an auto manufacturer must never do. As the person in charge of the Toyota Group, I sincerely apologize for this.
June 4: In response to the serious improper behavior such as data fraud involving safety, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and To urism of Japan conducted a round of surprise inspections on the headquarters of Toyota Motor in Aichi Prefecture. The inspectors will interrogate the person in charge of quality and analyze the relevant documents to find out the ins and outs of the incident.
June 6: Due to the influence of being notified by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan of the existence of test data fraud problems, Japanese companies Toyota and Mazda have suspended the production work of a total of 5 involved models from today.