By KOHEI KONDO/ Staff Writer
July 25, 2023 at 13:39 JST
Hiroyuki Kaneshige announces his resignation as president of Bigmotor Co. on July 25. (Shota Tomonaga)
The president and vice president of used-car retailer and workshop chain Bigmotor Co. are resigning after revelations that employees routinely damaged automobiles sent in for accident repairs and passed the inflated costs to insurance companies.
Reading from a prepared statement at a news conference on July 25, Hiroyuki Kaneshige said he and his son Koichi, who is vice president, would both step down the following day.
Kaneshige apologized to all those affected by his company’s actions.
“I decided that the shortest route to restoring trust in the company was to totally revamp the corporate culture and have all employees move forward together under a new president,” Kaneshige said.
He said Shinji Izumi, a senior executive, would take over as president.
The news conference was the first time that Bigmotor has spoken publicly about its problems after publishing a report by a third-party committee that revealed a culture of damaging autos to inflate repair bills.
The report said Bigmotor required repair shops to secure about 140,000 yen ($990) in profit on each vehicle from service fees and parts.
Workers would whack vehicles with a golf ball in a sock, scratch them with a screwdriver or intentionally break headlight covers to inflate insurance bills. The report said such practices began before 2020.
At the news conference, Kaneshige said he was unaware of the practices until he read the report. He said he could not believe it.
The transport ministry plans to summon Bigmotor executives for questioning on July 26. Officials then have the option of visiting those repair shops that are suspected of illegal practices to determine if any administrative disciplinary measure is needed.
Kaneshige established Bigmotor in 1978. The company billed itself as Japan’s largest buyer of used cars by the number of vehicles for six consecutive years.
According to Teikoku Databank Ltd., Bigmotor had sales of 520 billion yen for the fiscal year ending in September 2022, about triple the figure for the year ending in September 2017.
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