This is rather startling. The Japan transport ministry has raided the leading automaker, Toyota Industrial Company, due to a scandal involving forged safety information.
Recent revelations have shown that the company was involved in feeding wrong or manipulative data to certification tests that are meant to establish an automobile’s safety. This move has raised eyebrows in the Japanese automotive market.
Toyota has traditionally been a symbol of quality and endurance, and the carmaker has said sorry for the incident with chairman Akio Toyoda tendering down before microphones in a serious press conference. The following are the quotes used:
“We failed to pay adequate attention to certification, and instead, we are producing an enormous number of vehicles without going through the right procedures,” admitted Toyoda.
More Japanese car manufacturers have also been involved in the scandal, with Honda, Mazda, and Suzuki submitting false figures in their safety tests. Honda, for instance, has admitted to guilt in tests concerning the noise and power of its engines, and Mazda has suspended supplying some of its models and vowed to absorb the costs fully.
The ramifications of this scandal are profound, as not only has Toyota stopped the manufacturing of three car models, Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio, and Yaris Cross, but it also has been alleged to have used l stopped manufacturing the three car models in question and has been accused of having used modified car models during safety collision tests for vehicles that are no longer in production.
That means Toyota may face even more massive fines – and further reputation damage – as the transport ministry continues its probe to determine the full extent of the data-fiddling scandal and whether cars already sold have any safety flaws. Given that the reputation of the automobile industry is at risk, other players in the industry would be keenly observing events as the outcome of this scandal unfolds.
