Prosecutors Launch Probe into Mitsubishi Materials Group Fraud

August 23, 2018

Tokyo- The Mitsubishi Materials Corp. group is under investigation by public prosecutors for falsifying product quality data, following the indictment of Kobe Steel Ltd. over a similar scandal, it was learned Thursday.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is investigating data fraud at five group companies of the nonferrous metal maker on suspicion of false indications under the unfair competition prevention law, informed sources said.

The five are Mitsubishi Shindoh Co., Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd., Mitsubishi Aluminum Co., Diamet Corp. and Tachibana Metal Mfg. Co.

The prosecutors will question group officials on a voluntary basis while conducting searches at related locations, the sources said.

Mitsubishi Materials declined to comment.

The Japanese manufacturing industry has been hit by a spate of product quality scandals recently. In July, Kobe Steel was indicted over data manipulations mainly for aluminum and copper products.

Since November last year, Mitsubishi Materials has disclosed data irregularities at the five group companies.

Among the five, the misconduct at Diamet, an automobile parts maker, may date back to 1977 or earlier. Even after the scandal came to light, the company's then president ordered the continued shipments of affected products.

Mitsubishi Cable engaged in the data falsification from the 1990s, based on a shared manual for the scheme. Its previous president, sacked over the matter, is believed to have been aware of the misconduct since around 2013.

In March this year, Mitsubishi Materials released a final report on the scandal and preventive measures.

But in June, the company said it shipped copper slag aggregate, a concrete material, as a Japanese Industrial Standards-certified product from its Naoshima plant in Kagawa Prefecture without required checks.

The plant was stripped of the JIS certification for the product. The company's then president, Akira Takeuchi, resigned. Jiji Press