Photo/Illutration Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., speaks at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya on Jan. 30. (Tadashi Mizowaki)

NAGOYA—The chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. apologized to customers over a recent spate of scandals centered around falsifications of testing data required for government certification at its group companies.

“We deeply apologize to our customers for causing inconvenience and anxiety,” Akio Toyoda told a news conference at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology here on Jan. 30.

“We will stick to the ‘right’ ways of manufacturing and become a Toyota group that will be needed in the future.”

The apology came a day after Toyota Industries Corp., a core group company, announced flawed testing of diesel engines it produces for Toyota passenger vehicles, including the popular Land Cruiser 300 SUV.

Two Toyota subsidiaries, Hino Motors Ltd. and Daihatsu Motor Co., have also reported irregularities in testing in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Toyoda pointed to a crisis that Toyota faced in 2019 and 2010 when the nation’s top automaker was forced to recall millions of vehicles in North America and Japan.

“We lost sight of our important values and priorities as a result of prioritizing expansion of scale,” said Toyoda, who served as company president from 2009 to 2023.

“It is not only Toyota that has lost sight of its founding principles,” he said. “The same thing is now happening at our group companies."

Hino, a truck maker, was found to have falsified engine emissions and fuel economy data.

Daihatsu, a minivehicle maker, temporarily suspended shipments of all its models after 174 cases of misconduct were confirmed, including in safety crash tests.

Toyota President Koji Sato said Jan. 29 that some commonalities led to the fraudulent practices at group companies, such as mutual checks and balances failing to function because the same department was responsible for both development and certification.

“Management has failed to keep up with changes on the ground,” Sato said. “Greater support was needed for on-site operations.”

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