Safety standards falsified at Daihatsu

ON THE back of an executive cleansing emissions scandal that rocked Toyota’s truck subsidiary Hino in late 2022 through 2023 comes news of another ‘scandal’ involving falsified information with Toyota’s wholly owned subsidiary, Daihatsu.

An independent investigation commissioned by Daihatsu itself was triggered by safety test irregularities and has identified them across a wide scope of Daihatsu products that also include as many as 12 models rebranded as Toyotas, in some instances stretching back 30 years.

Though distancing itself from the fracas, Toyota is in damage control in an effort to minimise adverse repercussions to its reputation for quality and safety.

Makoto Kaiami, a lawyer chairing the investigation attributes the root of the problem to Daihatsu management.

“I don’t believe Toyota bears responsibility,” he said.

Former Japanese transport ministry official Kanji Nakayama told publication Nikkei Asia that “a major cause is the lack of ‘genchi genbutsu’ at Daihatsu”.

The term translates to ‘go and see for yourself’, and refers to on-site learning and problem-solving in accordance with Toyota’s business mantra.

Nakayama-san and his investigation committee found widespread and systematic problems relating to testing at Daihatsu.

Few Daihatsu executives made on-site visits, according to the committee report.

Toyota has taken steps to improve governance at group companies, such as calling on top management to enforce compliance and codes of conduct.

In relation to possible implications Down Under, it is unclear which, if any Daihatsu rebranded Toyota models may be affected, but the list may also include some Subaru vehicles due to Toyota/Subaru links.

Though a long-time player Down Under, with popular models like the Charade, Sirion, Applause, Terios, Rocky and Feroza, Daihatsu withdrew from the Australian market in March 2006 allegedly due to poor sales probably coupled with the desire to make room for small Toyota branded passenger vehicles and light commercials.

The focus of the Japanese investigation was side collision safety tests initially found to be “rigged” in at least 88,000 vehicles later discovered to many more across 64 models and extending back over three decades.

A deeper investigation now involves officials of the Japanese transport ministry prompting Daihatsu to shut down all four of its factories in Japan while the safety probe continues.

The production line shut down until the end of February follows a week after Daihatsu announced it was suspending all vehicle shipments locally and outside Japan due to “improper testing”.

Affected facilities include Daihatsu plants in Shiga, Kyoto and Oita prefectures as well as at the company headquarters in Osaka.

The knock-on effect is likely to hit local economies at thousands of car parts makers and their employees coming on top of last week’s earthquake disaster.

But Daihatsu has promised to compensate 423 domestic suppliers, business partners and is attempting to minimise the production shut down’s impact on its supplier network.

Japanese sources say Daihatsu, whose main models are the HiJet micro-truck and van and the Mira light hatch, is one of possibly five other major Japanese car makers to undergo investigation for safety and other breaches in the past few years.