Gov’t seeks penalty on Nissan over inspection scandal

March 26, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's transport ministry on Monday called on a local court to impose an administrative fine on Nissan Motor Co. as the company was found to have continued to partially carry out inappropriate vehicle inspections even after it was instructed late last September to correct its operations.

The ministry asked Yokohama District Court for the fine under the country's road transport vehicle law.

On the same day, the ministry issued a second instruction for the automaker based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, to correct its operations over the vehicle inspection scandal, recognizing that the responsibility of the company as an organization and its management team is "extremely large."

After receiving a document on the instruction from transport minister Keiichi Ishii, Nissan President Hiroto Saikawa apologized and said, "We take this very seriously."

It was revealed in September that unqualified Nissan workers were engaged in final inspections of finished vehicles although automakers are required by the ministry to make sure that such checks are carried out by technicians who have obtained related qualifications based on their respective internal rules.

According to the ministry, part of the required inspections was skipped for 24,207 vehicles that were examined at Nissan's plant in the town of Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, between January 2014 and October 2017.

The ministry sought the administrative fine for 107 of the vehicles as the flawed inspections for them were conducted after the first business improvement instruction.

If the maximum per-unit penalty of 300,000 yen is imposed for the vehicles, the total amount of fine would be the largest on record under the law, sources familiar with the matter said.

Speaking to reporters, Saikawa said, "I have huge responsibility to eliminate the long-running misconduct and steer the firm to the future." Jiji Press