Mitsubishi, mad cows and Minamata

One of Japan's premier brand names, Mitsubishi, has come under severe pressure. On 24 March 2004, the Mainichi newspaper reported that Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (‘Fuso’, until recently part of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation or ‘MMC’) had announced the recall of an astonishing 113,000 large vehicles, admitting that defective hubs were the cause of wheels coming off and dozens of accidents. Over June, Fuso revealed that it had failed to report 159 cases of vehicle defects, causing 24 accidents resulting in injuries, 63 resulting in property damage, and 101 fires. On 6 May, seven former and current senior MMC executives were arrested on charges of false reporting to regulatory authorities, and professional negligence causing a death and injuries in Yokohama. On 10 June, moreover, other former MMC executives (including former president Katsuhiko Kawasoe) were arrested for professional negligence, involving another fatal truck accident in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Several, including Kawasoe, maintain their innocence, but Japanese prosecutors select their cases very carefully and therefore almost always succeed. Also in June, MMC announced a recall of another 170,000 smaller vehicles, involving seventeen passenger car models. MMC was reported to have confessed that it ‘hid twenty-six defects in its cars from regulators – in addition to four problems it publicised in 2000 – to avoid issuing recalls for the vehicles’. Déjà vu?

Pressure had actually been building on MMC from July 2000 when, after an insider tip-off, Japan's Transport Ministry conducted a spot inspection.