Officials from Japan’s transport ministry conducted an on-site investigation at Toyota Motor’s headquarters in response to irregularities discovered in its certification applications for certain models. The scandal, which originated from safety test issues at Toyota’s Daihatsu unit, has now affected other Japanese automakers. While Toyota was the only automaker subjected to an on-site inspection, the transport ministry had previously announced plans to inspect Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha Motor after finding flawed or manipulated data in their certification applications. Toyota’s chairman, Akio Toyoda, publicly apologized for the situation during a press conference, expressing remorse to shareholders, car enthusiasts, and other stakeholders.
According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, there is a need for further improvement in governance from a compliance perspective in the future.
On Tuesday morning, the shares of Toyota declined by 1.1%, following a 1.8% loss on Monday. Honda’s shares also dropped by 2.3%. However, Suzuki and Mazda saw an increase of 0.9% in their shares.
Both Toyota and Mazda announced on Monday that they had suspended shipments of certain models.