While frontline workers at plants repeatedly falsified data, the company's management could not take effective measures to prevent this. The failures of the company's corporate governance are nothing short of astonishing.
Nissan Motor Co. tampered with measurement data on fuel economy and exhaust emissions. The data was altered for 1,171 cars -- more than half of the vehicles on which Nissan conducted sample inspections -- from 19 models.
This wrongdoing has been uncovered at five of Nissan's six vehicle plants in Japan. When measurement values deviated from the company's own standards, the data was altered to make it fit the desired figures.
What was the motive behind this falsification? Was management's oversight function working? Nissan should swiftly reexamine its approach and give a full picture of what happened.
In September 2017, it was revealed that unqualified workers had conducted final inspections on vehicles at the Nissan plants.
At a press conference in October, Nissan President Hiroto Saikawa promised to take steps to prevent further scandals at the automaker. Despite this, separate misconduct continued up until last month. This illustrates just how deep-rooted Nissan's problems are.
There seems to have been a pervasive awareness among workers at the plants that not following the regulations would be tolerated, provided the data was only slightly changed. Nissan's corporate culture of disregarding the rules should be rectified.
Stricter system unavoidable
Nissan explained that its internal measurement standards were stricter than those set by the government, and that rechecked emissions figures cleared the government's standards. The fuel economy figures also met publicly announced performance levels, so the company said there is no need for vehicles to be recalled.
Even if that is the case, it is no reason to allow data to be altered.
Consumers buy a vehicle because they trust fuel economy and other data printed in catalogs. The completed vehicle inspection system underpins this process, as sample inspections conducted by automakers guarantee the credibility of data in these catalogs.
Tweaking these measurement values to suit Nissan's own purpose itself is an act that betrays the trust of users of its vehicles. It could possibly open the door to even greater wrongdoing.
Nissan plans to change its systems this month so that measurement values cannot be altered. The automaker also must take effective measures to prevent a recurrence, including reforming employee awareness on this issue.
Subaru Corp. also recently disclosed its workers had similarly fabricated vehicle emission and other data.
A string of scandals at the nation's automakers, which are a key industry, could ruin the credibility of everything that is "Made in Japan."
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is conducting a review of the vehicle inspection system. A pillar of this review will be establishing a system under which automakers could be recommended to effectively halt production and shipments from the point at which suspicions of wrongdoing arise.
Given the seemingly endless data falsification scandals, tightening the system will be unavoidable.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 13, 2018)
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