Photo/Illutration Shimadzu Corp.’s head office in Kyoto’s Nakagyo Ward in February 2022 (Satoko Onuki)

Employees of a subsidiary of a medical equipment manufacturer reportedly were involved in 43 cases where they set timers on X-ray equipment so the machines would stop working and require service. 

Officials of Shimadzu Corp., based in Kyoto’s Nakagyo Ward, said in a report released on Feb. 10 that the workers with Shimadzu Medical Systems Corp. (SMS) billed medical institutions in four Kyushu prefectures for repairs after the radiography systems shut down. 

The report, compiled by a panel of outside experts including lawyers, said that SMS’s service engineers set commercially available timers on X-ray systems, without permission, at five medical institutions in Kumamoto Prefecture between 2016 and 2018.

The timers shut the power off after a certain period of time.

The workers then replaced parts during service calls for a fee of approximately 1.5 million yen to 2 million yen ($11,300 to $15,000) in each instance.

The misconduct was brought to light by a whistle-blower last April.

The probe by the investigatory panel found 38 other suspected cases of similar wrongdoing, although no hard evidence was obtained, at medical institutions in Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Nagasaki prefectures between 2009 and 2019, according to Shimadzu officials.

The proceeds from the 38 cases totaled 83.14 million yen. Likely involved in the wrongdoing were a total of seven engineers, including five business office directors, who were senior workers considered on a level with department heads or division chiefs.

There had been another internal whistle-blower's complaint made in 2017. Accounts of the misconduct were reported to an executive officer at the time, who, however, stopped short of conducting an internal probe or notifying the parent company.

No health damage from the wrongdoing has been found, Shimadzu officials said, adding that the company will contact the affected medical institutions in the coming days to offer compensation.

The investigation report said the misconduct was prompted by “excessive pressure applied by superiors to achieve earnings targets.”

Upon receiving the probe report, Shimadzu decided to punish SMS President Yoshiaki Miura with a 10-percent pay cut for a month and has also dismissed Hidekazu Kubota from the posts of SMS managing director and head of the SMS technical headquarters.

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