Japanese car manufacturers are once again involved in a scandal of falsification, sounding the alarm for car safety. On June 3, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism instructed 85 car manufacturers to investigate possible violations in obtaining certification for vehicle and engine production. Companies like Toyota, Mazda, and Yamaha Engine were found to have falsified vehicle performance tests, prompting investigations by the ministry. Facing this scandal, Japanese car companies like Toyota and Mazda quickly issued apologies for their misconduct. In the past, Japan’s manufacturing industry prided itself on the “craftsman spirit,” especially in the automotive sector. Toyota, in particular, has been under scrutiny for falsification scandals, with subsidiary Daihatsu admitting to misconduct involving six vehicle models. Regulators in Japan have launched thorough investigations into the falsification practices, revealing numerous violations in testing procedures. The extent of falsification may be even greater than the reported 174 violations, according to third-party investigators, making this scandal unprecedented in Japan.
As expected by the public. After the scandal broke, Akio Toyoda came forward to apologize and said: this is a betrayal of customer trust that cannot be accepted. Immediately, Daihatsu’s leadership held a press conference to apologize to the public and announced the suspension of all car shipments, and the immediate recall of over 1 million vehicles involved. Today, as the cheating scandal involving Japanese carmakers led by Toyota “replays history”, as mentioned earlier, their apologies are also coming one after another. But, is apologizing really effective? Can the vehicle safety issues hidden behind the data falsification problem really be summed up with just a “bow and apology”? Undoubtedly, the continuous stream of car manufacturing scandals by Japanese carmakers has deepened global market doubts about Japanese car products. It is reported that Toyota’s stock price fell by 1.76% on Monday, Mazda’s stock price fell by 3.26%, and Yamaha’s stock price fell by 0.48%. Is cheating on test data a trivial matter? So, what exactly are the test data falsifications exposed this time by Japanese carmakers? What is their importance? For consumers, what does vehicle testing really mean? Taking the example of Daihatsu’s previous exposure of falsified crash test data. At the end of last year, Toyota stated in a declaration that in the investigation of its subsidiary Daihatsu’s vehicles, most of them had issues with falsified safety crash test data. The investigation found that the safety airbag tests for Daihatsu Move/Subaru Stella, Daihatsu Cast/Toyota Pixis Joy, and Daihatsu GranMax/Toyota Town Ace/Mazda Bongo did not use the same “safety airbag deployment computer” as the production models. Although technical verification showed that the occupant protection performance of the airbags was not an issue, it was also found that the “occupant rescue-related safety performance” in the Cast/Pixis Joy side impact tests may not comply with legal requirements. In other words, even the slightest deviation in vehicle test data could potentially become a sharp threat to consumer “life safety” in the event of an accident after the vehicle is put into market use.
It is reported that since Daihatsu became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota, frontline staff have been asked to shorten development cycles and deliver quickly. This has led to misconduct, with the department responsible for crash tests at Daihatsu being reduced to one-third of its size in 2010. This may serve as a warning to participants in the global automotive industry. Today, the global automotive industry is entering a phase of reshuffling, with cost pressures, performance demands, profit expansion, and supply chain evolution pushing all companies in the industry to minimize production costs. However, it is important to be vigilant as cost-cutting measures in manufacturing cannot compromise safety performance. As Daihatsu previously stated: “Automobile manufacturing must focus on every millimeter, every gram, every yen, and every second.”