Japanese automaker Daihatsu Motor Co has suspended all its domestic production as the Toyota Motor Corp-owned company faces a massive safety testing scandal.
The firm, which has about 9,000 factory workers in Japan, closed the last of its four domestic plants, a Daihatsu spokesman said yesterday.
“Production will be suspended through January. We have not been able to assess as to exactly when our domestic production can resume,” the spokesman said.
Photo: AFP
The move could affect more than 8,000 companies across the nation, market research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd said.
Daihatsu last week said that it had been manipulating safety tests since at least 1989, affecting 64 models, including some sold under the Toyota brand which also are being suspended.
The company in April said that it had been falsifying crash test results for four of its models, involving a total of 88,000 vehicles made in Thailand and Malaysia last year and this year.
Daihatsu in May announced that it was halting production in Japan of two hybrid vehicle models because of similar “irregularities,” including the Toyota Raize sports utility vehicle, manufactured on behalf of its parent company.
So far, there have been no reports of accidents or deaths due to the falsified tests.
Speaking to reporters last week, Daihatsu president Soichiro Okudaira acknowledged the cheating on safety testing and procedures, saying it was tantamount to neglect of safety certificates.
He attributed the problems to pressure on workers to meet ambitious demands for tight development deadlines.
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