Japan’s second largest automaker Nissan revealed today that it has identified slip-ups in the emission and fuel economy inspections, which weren’t in line with the regulatory standards. Nissan also added that the data updated in its inspection records were falsified. The “misconduct” was found across all its Japanese plants except Nissan Motor Kyushu. Shares of the firm plunged nearly 5% in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
This is the second goof up from Nissan within a year. It’s worth noting that last September the Japanese regulators unearthed that the final inspection dubbed as “kanken” was performed by employees who aren’t qualified to do so, resulting in recalling nearly 1.2 million cars last year. The company also has to stop new vehicle registrations briefly until it fixed the kanken process.
Nissan also added that there is no need to recall any vehicles as a result of today’s announcement since all the vehicles emission and fuel economy data meet the prescribed regulatory standards. Today’s discovery was part of the suo moto exercise carried by the automaker across its entire manufacturing process post the September 2017 inspection issue.
Related: Audi CEO behind bars due to dieselgate emission scandal
Investors and consumers across the globe are worried about the growing list of auto firms which has been involved in the emission scandals. In 2015, Volkswagen was caught in fudging the emissions data which resulted in the indictment of the former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Last month, the German regulators have arrested the Audi CEO Rupert Stadler as part of the scandal. Volkswagen seems to have spent nearly $30 billion as part of the goof up, and the worst part is the German auto giant is still fighting in the US and German courts relating to the issue.
Japanese companies are generally known for their engineering prowess, innovation and maintaining high standards in terms of ethics and discipline. Globally, many firms have embraced the concept of kaizen (also known as continuous improvement) and lean concepts from the Japanese firms. The recent scandals reported in the land of the rising sun have raised concerns globally about the ethics and discipline of the Japanese firms.
Related: Diesel scandal: first Volkswagen, now Daimler?
Apart from the Nissan’s debacle, companies like Kobe Steel, Subaru, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Toray has been hit by the scandal, which shows that Japanese firms and regulators need to put in place stringent measures to make sure these kind of mishaps are not recurring.