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Suzuki, Mazda, Yamaha Motor admit using fake vehicle emission data

52 Comments
By Mari Yamaguchi

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52 Comments
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Nothing new with big corporations in Japan. Seems as though this sort of stuff is happening on a weekly basis, along with the deep bow, apologise for the 'confusion', and then continue on as normal.

12 ( +18 / -6 )

Who would have thought...

9 ( +15 / -6 )

Oh boy! not another company falsifying data, can't any company be strait with people? it just undermines all confidence in there products.

7 ( +14 / -7 )

Brian Wheway

Imagine if they put as much effort into their products as they do with trying to cover up their lies......

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Government is going to do what? Why can big business in Japan get away with ANYTHING, say sorry, and continue like nothing has happened? CEO's please DO NOT return your salary, it is meaningless! Government needs to lay serious fines on these companies in order to stamp out this practise.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Masters at faking it. Can't say I'm surprised.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

The history of the rebuilding of Japan and the "bubble" years needs to be rewritten to show that many of these giant corporations got where they are today in part to falsifying data and putting the safety of the people at risk.

Emissions data is one thing, yet if folks dig a bit deeper I would not be surprised to that there are other problems as well.

Where is the Japan fan club today?

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Welcome to Japan folks! Nothing to new to see here. When I mention how often "cooking the books" happen in Japan to save face, the Japanphiles always like to give a ton of down votes. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Japan likes to keep everything surface level!

7 ( +14 / -7 )

The Government is the MOST to blame. Why? Because they set standards but never follow up and check them. There is no oversight throughout much of Japan's domestic industry. And what gets me the most, just try to export into Japan, your product will go through stringent testing with a fine tooth comb. I actually think this might just be a method whereby the Govt. is trying to keep imports out. They set stringent standards, make all foreign companies follow them but do not closely check domestic manufacturers. When the domestic companies are caught.... they give them a slap on the wrist.

7 ( +12 / -5 )

This is getting a bit ridiculous.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Nothing new. Nothing will ever change why because the government is there to protect the interest of j companies rather than the people. Unfortunately the people have their heads buried deep in the sand.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Daily business. Can anyone name one big Japanese company that DIDN'T have a scandal?

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Whether it be emission data, test scores, city rankings or the other myriad of figures they use to judge reality you have to wonder if this obsession actually reflects anything real. Or is it just used as a smokescreen to try and hide a much less competent situation ? Expediency is so engrained that the fudge becomes the job! Another big hit for the Japan Inc. brand. Pick up the game fellas! Have the difficult conversations BEFORE you are forced to have them in desperation.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Safe to say it's a cultural thing ?

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

YubaruToday 07:52 am JSTThe history of the rebuilding of Japan and the "bubble" years needs to be rewritten to show that many of these giant corporations got where they are today in part to falsifying data and putting the safety of the people at risk.

my goodness such hyperbole. you can really only say in the past 5 years this is true because big corporations are more focused on profits and share holders than quality.

but you can't say that about the post WW2 years, when japan emerged as a super high quality manufacturer of products.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Why pick on Japanese car industry? Has everyone forgotten the VOlkswagon scandal of a few years ago? They falsified emissions data, for diesel cars. It happaens in every country.

-9 ( +10 / -19 )

No, Japan, this is NOT what  #metoo  means

0 ( +8 / -8 )

@nakanoguy01 - but you can't say that about the post WW2 years, when japan emerged as a super high quality manufacturer of products.

I'm afraid you can say that about post-war Japan, especially during the bubble years. Are you naive enough to think the corruption and falsified data is something new? The only thing new about it is, these days they are getting caught. In fact, the corruption was much worse during the boom years. Japan Inc, was virtually run on brown paper bags full of cash and grafting, so much so that, everybody was getting a piece of the pie, which resulted nobody reporting anything. Nowadays, things are much different due to the failing economy. Companies are continuing the corrupt practices, but there isn't enough money to graft everybody, so the are getting caught.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

With a declining economy and China on the rise, these old goons simply have no choice but cheat and fudge.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Sounds more and more like this has always been 'business as usual' in Japan - they're just unable to keep it a secret anymore

1 ( +9 / -8 )

you mean to tell me Japanese corporations lied to the public???? No WAAAAAAAAAY!

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Suzuki said nearly half of its 12,819 new car inspections involved improper inspections at its three plants. Improper inspections happened less often at the other two — 2.1 percent of 335 motorbikes inspected in the last two years at Yamaha and 3.8 percent of 1,875 vehicles inspected at Mazda over the past four years, the ministry said in a statement.

2.1% of Yamaha vehicles and 3.8% of Mazda vehicles? I don't see any problems whatsoever at such miniscule levels.

Suzuki on the other hand at nearly 50%.. They are almost as bad as the disgraceful German and American fraudsters. Almost..

7 ( +12 / -5 )

Ganbare

because the story is about Japanese cars... if it were about Volkswagen then we would be talking about them. Don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Why is this even newsworthy??!!

its almost customary for most of these big companies to these types of things! :-/

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Anyone surprised at this by now?  Seems big corporations worldwide have been lying about all sorts of things for ever......

15 ( +15 / -0 )

Still higher quality than the rest of the pack, no issues

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Japanese corporate reputation declining faster than the birth rate.

1 ( +13 / -12 )

You say you are lying, but if everything you say is a lie, then you are telling the truth, but you cannot tell the truth because everything you say is a lie, but you lie... You tell the truth but you cannot for you lie... illogical! Illogical! Please explain!

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

I love it... one poster said "why pick on Japanese car industry, have you forgotten VW". Who is picking on the Japanese car industry.... us 20 or 30 posters here on JT? Like we make a difference. Heck, who caught them after a few years of mismanagement, Japanese authorities. Most of us posters would say the same thing... if this were an isolated incident, but it is constant... falsified data, we here it again and again. No one is picking on Japan. We'd be sticking up for Japan also if this were a rare occurrence.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

I wonder these "scandals" happen every time the Japanese government begins a new free trade negotiation with United States, Why ?

8 ( +13 / -5 )

Actually there is nothing wrong with the quality of Japanese products, just Japanese industry has increased its quality protocol above international levels.

I am totally confident in Japanese industry, I'll keep buying cars Made In Japan!

3 ( +12 / -9 )

Actually there is nothing wrong with the quality of Japanese products, just Japanese industry has increased its quality protocol above international levels.

I am totally confident in Japanese industry, I'll keep buying cars Made In Japan!

I agree. I still have faith in Japanese made products. They're sturdy and the customer service has been very good from my experience. Most of the cars I've owned have been Japanese and have never given me much trouble. It's just the top brass covering up and giving the the bow and apologize like everyone else and expects that to be it. Now, I have more respect for the actual producers of these products than the top brass. Like you, Udondashi, I will also continue to buy Made in Japan.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

@Udonashi.... they increase the level above international standards... enforce imports to those standards and do not enforce those standards to the domestics. Believe me, their level of corruption is above your level of comprehension.

0 ( +9 / -9 )

@Udondashi

how's Takada (airbag co.) doing these days? oh yeah, they filed for bankruptcy. they faked their data, too. that's why falsifying data should be scrutinized more, and why we should be concerned about these scandals

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

To be honest, Japanese companies could have 10 times as many scandals but I still consider Japanese products magnitudes higher quality than the rubbish from the US and other low quality producers. Not remotely fazed by this

6 ( +13 / -7 )

I think it's actually a law in Japan that these guys have to fake data. That's why they NEVER get in trouble over it, and then do it again. ALL major corporations have been caught doing this, and ALL have said they would be transparent and not repeat it, and NOTHING is ever done about it. TIJ.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

Liza: "but I still consider Japanese products magnitudes higher quality than the rubbish from the US and other low quality producers"

Because you are told to, and because you believe it without question. Doesn't matter that you were lied to to justify the jacked up prices. There was a time when Japanese products were synonymous with high quality (long after they were synonymous with dirt post-war), but now they are just synonymous with corruption and scandal, and are no better than anything other nations produce, and that's just fact. The quality of products from companies like Samsung have gotten exponentially better than they used to be, and that's why these companies have to fudge data.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

To be honest, Japanese companies could have 10 times as many scandals but I still consider Japanese products magnitudes higher quality than the rubbish from the US

I am not American but your statement is incredible non sense. Rubbish products from US? Really are you serious? So:

Where do the operating system running all non-phone smartphones come from? Google US.

What's the most popular smartphone in Japan? Apple's iPhone from US.

Where do the majority of cpus running in Japan come from? Intel, AMD US.

Where do the planes transporting people in Japan come from? Boeing US.

Where does the operating system running on all pcs in Japan come from? Microsoft US

Where do the second most popular personal computer platform used by people and business in Japan come from? Apple's Mac US.

Where all all GPUs used to power games and compute AI applications including self driving cars come from? Nvidia, AMD US.

Where do the large majority of CPUs powering non-phone smartphones in Japan come from? Qualcomm US.

Where do the majority of web technologies used in Japan come from? US.

Where do the majority of programming language used in Japan come from? US

Where do the majority of storage technologies come from? US.

And I could go on and on... I could also mention the questionable quality of Japanese products. I could for example mention the recall of cars by millions by all Japanese makers the last few years. I could speak about the poor quality of Japanese apartments and housing. But I don't want to embarrass you....

-2 ( +10 / -12 )

To be honest, Japanese companies could have 10 times as many scandals but I still consider Japanese products magnitudes higher quality than the rubbish from the US and other low quality producers. Not remotely fazed by this

@Liza: 100% agree here! Japanese products are still top 3 in the world even with all these supposed "scandals", as if most companies in the US, UK, etc. are sparkly clean rofl

4 ( +10 / -6 )

Japanese industry has increased its quality protocol above international levels.

Really so do you have any data to back that up? Because the real facts do not support your statement at all. Let's have a look about the facts, shall we?

Here is a list non-exhaustive of the so called high standard quality in Japan:

 Tepco safety check data falsification (going on for 40 years) and negligence which eventually resulted to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. 

Japan Atomic Corp safety check and operation data falsification.

Toyo Tires product quality data falsification.

Takata airbag poor quality product and data falsification. 

Olympus financial falsification. 

Toyota fiasco with accelerating vehicles and poor quality production of floor mats.

Suzuki and Mitsubishi fuel emission falsification. 

Toshiba financial falsification.

Kaketsuken, vaccine and blood product records fraud going on for forty years. 

Kimura Construction falsification of quake resistance data. 

Asahi Kasei data fabrication scandal on piling work. 

The food menu scandal involving well-known hotels and department stores. 

The HIV-tainted blood scandal involving the Green Cross Corporation. 

Kobe Steel Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp data quality falsification.

Improper testing at Subaru Corp (going on for 30 years). and Nissan Motor Co. (also going on for decades), 

Mazda and Yamaha Motor improper fuel economy, emissions tests on vehicles. 

Toray Hybrid Cord Inc. quality assurance data falsification.

Todai professors falsification of research data in five papers at Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (IMCB).

Citizen Watch Co. subsidiary falsified inspection data on LED parts.

Kohei Yamamizu, a specially appointed assistant professor at Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) involved in iPS research — falsified 11 of 12 figures used in his paper that was published in the U.S. academic journal Stem Cell Reports. 

Obakata research data falsification.

Hitachi Chemical Co. falsified quality data for batteries.

Electronics maker Toshiba Corp. falsified data on three coolant flow meters for a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., in addition to one at the utility firm’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant. This was back in 2006.

JR Hokkaido failure to fix track defects and falsification of track maintenance data.

Airliner seat maker Koito Industries Ltd. (air plane seat maker) fabrication of fire-resistance data.

Tokyo medical university, exam falsification to reduce the number of women and accepting bureaucrat's son from the education ministry in exchange of government funds.

I could go on and on but I guess the nationalists like "Ganbare Japan" are already sweating right now...

-1 ( +11 / -12 )

Correction: non-phone smartphones - non-iPhone smartphones.

Sorry....

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

but you can't say that about the post WW2 years, when japan emerged as a super high quality manufacturer of products.

Post WWII, "Made in Japan" meant cheap, not quality.

my goodness such hyperbole. you can really only say in the past 5 years this is true because big corporations are more focused on profits and share holders than quality.

I guess you dont read the news too much and like to create your own, as noted above in a number of posts, and also admitted to by a number of zaibatsu, they have been falsifying data for more than a generation.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

And guess what.... you very rarely hear about falsified data or false claims by U.S. Companies, and it is not because they're more honest, got nothing to do with honesty. But is has everything to do with being sued and class action lawsuits. Japanese companies get slapped on the wrist a bit. Heck, in the boardroom they probably laugh about the idea of getting caught.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I think pretty much the whole automobile industrial is doing this. Not just Japan or German. When I buy a car, I am more into its reliability than its emission. I can already rule out couple of brands that I will never buy again due to my past experience with them - Land Rover and Chrysler. I should have listened to my farther who was a mechanics.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Heck, in the boardroom they probably laugh about the idea of getting caught.

Because the odds of having to pay out billions of yen in compensation are next to zero.

The system here does not make people "rich" through litigation, far from it, and businesses know this and will spend untold amounts of money to NOT have to pay anything!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Fines do not work! People must be jailed, plus the companies suspended from doing business.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

For every car sold in Japan Y5,000 should go to an independent testing company. Actually, they should establish 3 independent testing companies. Each one located in a different part of Japan. In addition any communication between said testing companies would be prohibited by law. The companies would be initially tasked with the major and important aspects of each automobile, safety, emissions, and mileage.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

yet the gullible Japanese consumer will still say "I buy Japanese products because I can trust that they are following the norms" (安心感).

I do research on consumer behavior in japan and that's the typical answer Japanese consumer will give you when asked about why they buy Japanese brands even if there are cheaper foreign brands.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japanese corporate reputation declining faster than the birth rate.

On which knowledge does the poster base that as Dieselgate hardly effected Volkswagen and Audi :)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

To be honest, Japanese companies could have 10 times as many scandals but I still consider Japanese products magnitudes higher quality than the rubbish from the US and other low quality producers. Not remotely fazed by this

Liza is my man :)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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