Vehicle inspection documents falsified at 5 Nissan plants

October 6, 2017

TOKYO- The government said Friday it has confirmed that documents on final inspections of finished vehicles were falsified at five of Nissan Motor Co.'s six plants in Japan.

The documents had seals showing that the inspections were conducted by certified employees although they were actually done by unqualified workers, transport minister Keiichi Ishii told a press conference.

The transport ministry has instructed Nissan to look into the background and other details of the wrongdoing.

Since Sept. 18, the ministry has conducted on-site investigations at the six Nissan plants without advance notice.

The probes found that multiple seals showing the name of a certified inspector were used at each of the six plants for documents created after the completion of inspections on finished vehicles.

At all plants except the one in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, these seals were confirmed to have been put on documents for inspections conducted by uncertified employees.

"This will be quite a big problem if the documents were falsified systematically," Ishii said.

He also said his ministry will examine whether to review the ways that automakers conduct vehicle inspections. Jiji Press