 "Osamu Suzuki")
Japan's No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used the wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, widening a mileage testing storm that had already rocked smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Those followed accounting scandals at Olympus Corp and Toshiba Corp, prompting criticism from some investors that the Japanese government's push to introduce new corporate governance rules has failed to shake up a cozy and often secretive corporate culture.
Suzuki, who has led the company for nearly four decades, acknowledged that during the past few years it had become difficult to oversee all of the company's operations on his own.
“Upon reflection, I believe that this may have contributed to the latest incident,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Suzuki, 86, will remain as chairman, but his narrower role is a recognition of responsibility for a testing error the company previously shrugged off.
The automaker used indoor tests for its cars’ individual parts, rather than testing vehicles on an outdoor course. It said this was done as its testing site is on a windy hill by the sea, making readings erratic. On Wednesday, it also blamed a lack of transparency in its key research unit. “This latest incident occurred because of problems within the company which had continued for a long time, including an R&D division which was not transparent enough,” said Toshihiro Suzuki, the chairman's eldest son. He took over from his father as president last year.
“We are making these changes today to try to regain the trust of our customers, and to rebuild Team Suzuki.” The company said it had yet to decide who would fill the CEO role or replace Honda, 66.
Suzuki, as chairman, will oversee the company's efforts to strengthen compliance and improve training for engineers, while reworking its mileage testing procedures to ensure they comply with regulations.
Raided by Japanese investigators last week as part of a probe over the tests, Suzuki also said it would encourage whistle-blowing.
Suzuki’s changed role and executive V-P Honda’s retirement are effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said. The testing scandals at Suzuki and Mitsubishi come after Volkswagen AG was first discovered last year to have cheated diesel emissions tests in the United States.
What happened
Suzuki Motor Corp admitted on May 18 that some discrepancies were found in the standard emission and fuel efficiency testing processes.
In a disclosure of its internal investigation to the Japanese ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, the firm said, “As the outcome of our internal investigation, acts of injustice, such as manipulation of fuel efficiency data were not found. Meanwhile, some discrepancies were found in the automobile emission and fuel efficiency testing process between the regulation by MLIT and the actual method carried out by Suzuki and therefore Suzuki herewith reports on the issue as follows. We would like to express our deep apologies to all our customers and stakeholders on this issue.”
Agencies
