Photo/Illutration Kei Uruma, president of Mitsubishi Electric Corp., responds to questions at a May 25 news conference. (Kenji Izawa)

A scandal at Mitsubishi Electric Corp. involving fraudulent testing and inferior products dating to the 1980s is expanding so widely that a panel looking into the problems on May 25 issued its third "interim" report.

Initially, the panel of lawyers had planned to conclude its investigation in April.

However, with more factories around Japan to look into, the investigation could extend to at least this autumn.

The latest report means that problems have so far been found at about 70 percent of Mitsubishi Electric’s plants around Japan. There were 101 new problems reported in the latest report, with some superiors actively instructing subordinates to falsify test data to keep down costs.

Last year, two top-level executives resigned in the wake of allegations of faking test data.

At a news conference on May 25, President Kei Uruma again apologized for the latest revelations and admitted the practices ran organization wide. Uruma said he felt his responsibility was to get to the bottom of all the problems and change the corporate culture.

Hiroshi Kimeda, the lawyer who is chairing the investigative panel, said at the news conference, “The practice of rationalizing what was done by saying no problems were found in quality has spread throughout the company. There will be no way to prevent a recurrence unless a proper response is made to such rationalization and ignoring quality control.”

Kimeda added that an overwhelming majority of those overseeing various practices in the company felt there was nothing wrong with what they were doing as long as it helped maintain profitability at the plant.

The latest report found that the plant in Ako, Hyogo Prefecture, manufacturing large transformers shipped out to nuclear power plants and other companies conducted fraudulent testing and design for about 40 years until March.
The fake practices started in the 1980s when those in higher positions gave instructions to rewrite test data to cut down on costs.

The plant in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, manufacturing auto parts ignored the specifications requested by customers and continued to produce inferior parts until this month. Plant officials contended equipment was not available to manufacture the products in line with the customer’s desires and that installing such equipment would be highly expensive.

The practice began in 2016 and was continued by those in higher positions.

Another plant in Hyogo Prefecture manufacturing valves controlling automobile exhaust did not conduct proper testing on the products because plant officials said there were insufficient staff and equipment. Those in higher positions said nothing about the lack of testing for more than a decade until October 2021.

The Nagasaki plant that manufactured emergency generators sold to hospitals and commercial facilities found malfunctions in the equipment from 2004. Plant officials considered repairing all the defective equipment, but the idea was squashed when the head of another company department became hesitant about submitting a report about major defects with a product.

Mitsubishi Electric only announced it would repair the faulty equipment in December 2021.

About the only bright spot in all the latest problems uncovered is that so far no accidents or equipment failure have been reported because of the products sent out under fraudulent testing practices.

(This article was compiled from reports by Koichi Murakami, Hisashi Naito and Tomonori Washida.)

Related News