Photo/Illutration Kei Uruma, president of Mitsubishi Electric Corp., offers an apology at a news conference held in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Oct. 20. (Kenji Izawa)

A former chairman at Mitsubishi Electric Corp. started engaging in fraudulent practices mainly involving equipment tests about 30 years ago when he was a low-level official, an investigative report showed.

A team of outside lawyers released the final report on Oct. 20 regarding faulty testing and defective equipment that came to light last year.

They uncovered an additional 70 cases of dubious practices at 11 Mitsubishi Electric plants. Overall, 197 fraudulent incidents were found at 17 of the company’s 22 plants, or close to 80 percent of the total.

The company announced new disciplinary measures on Oct. 20. Ten current and past executives will have their remuneration cut or be asked to return back pay.

In December, 12 executives were disciplined, including President Kei Uruma.

As a result of the various revelations, Takeshi Sugiyama resigned as company president in July 2021, and Masaki Sakuyama stepped down as company chairman in October that year. The final report confirmed that Sakuyama was involved in irregularities three decades ago when he was a section chief.

Sugiyama and Sakuyama were among the 12 disciplined in December.

The first sign that something was wrong came in June 2021, when the company’s plant in Nagasaki Prefecture was found to have faked testing data for more than 30 years on air conditioning equipment supplied to train companies.

An investigative panel was set up the following month, and it released interim reports on three occasions: October and December 2021 and May 2022.

Mitsubishi Electric was also found to have used an improper design for electrical transformers in nuclear power stations for 40 years and also manufactured defective emergency generators.

Related News