The frequent quality problems and counterfeiting scandals in Japan's manufacturing industry have undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to its international reputation
Fraud by car companies has led to a crisis
In recent years, with the rapid advancement of intelligent technology and globalization, Japanese automakers have been occupying an important position in the global market. However, just when everyone was still immersed in the trust and expectation of these brands, a shocking news broke all this:
△ Raigen / NTV NEWS
At the beginning of June, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced that Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Yamaha and Suzuki, five well-known automobile and motorcycle manufacturers, had fraudulent practices when applying for production certification.
After the news broke, the top executives of these companies, including the top executives of Toyota, Honda, Mazda and other companies, held press conferences to publicly apologize.
At the same time, the news also caused a shock in the stock market. On the day, four of the five companies saw their shares fall, with Mazda falling the most, down more than 3.2% from the previous session, while Toyota also fell more than 1.7%. Up to now, various adverse effects are still fermenting.
The trigger for this incident stemmed from the fact that after the incident of Daihatsu Industrial Data Fraud, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism asked 85 companies in all automobile-related industries across the country to conduct internal self-inspections.
The results are shocking - the five major car companies, including Toyota, have similar violations. After the incident was exposed, it not only caused an uproar in Japan, but also set off a heated discussion about the trust of Japanese cars around the world.
Manufacturing scandals are frequent
In recent years, quality problems have frequently erupted in Japan's manufacturing industry, affecting many fields such as automobiles, steel, and chemicals.
A few years ago, the main leaders of Kobe Steel and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. collectively apologized in front of the TV cameras, which is very consistent with today.
In 2017, Kobe Steel, Japan's third-largest steel company, admitted that it had been tampering with the data of aluminum, copper and other products for a long time, marking substandard products as qualified and bringing them to the market. Investigations have shown that this fraud has been going on for at least 10 years. That's not all, their iron powder products have also been exposed to data fraud.
The scandal has had a huge impact on more than 200 companies, including Toyota and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and has also affected Japan's domestic regional jet jet MRJ, Shinkansen trains, and the American Boeing airliner, which has attracted widespread international attention.
More seriously, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry warned that these products that falsified strength data are likely to have been used in defense equipment. Sure enough, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, IHI Corporation, Subaru and other companies later confirmed that some of the defense products they produced did use these problem materials, making the situation even more serious.
You must know that precision manufacturing has always been one of the pillars of Japan's economy, and being hit hard by this will undoubtedly cast a shadow on Japan's precision manufacturing industry......
In the same year, Nissan was revealed to have an unqualified technician conduct a final inspection of the vehicle and use the seal of a regular inspector. As soon as the incident broke in the media, it immediately caused widespread public opinion, and eventually led Nissan to close six factories and recall a total of 1.16 million vehicles of 38 models for re-inspection and maintenance.
Multiple factors lead to a crisis
In addition to the above-mentioned Kobe Steel and Nissan, other Japanese companies have also been involved in scandals in recent years.
For example, Takata Motors was fatal due to an airbag problem; Mitsubishi Motors suffered a crisis of confidence due to the "fuel economygate" pseudo-fuel-saving incident; Toshiba and Olympus have been frustrated by financial fraud. In addition, there are Asahi Kasei Construction's cutting corners, as well as shoddy practices in the food industry, which have cast a shadow over the reputation of Japanese companies.
△ Nissan has been involved in the scandal of "unlicensed quality inspection" in the past / 日テレNEWS
So why are there so many problems in Japan, which has an outstanding corporate culture? The main reasons can be boiled down to two aspects:
On the internal side, due to the long-term deflation, consumers are looking for good quality and low prices, and companies have to resort to some improper means, such as data falsification and cutting corners, in order to reduce costs.
The external factors come from the competitive pressure of countries such as China and South Korea. For example, China's home appliance industry has basically replaced the advantage of Japanese home appliances in the market, while South Korea's Kia and Hyundai have gradually replaced Japanese car companies in the US market.
In addition, with the advancement of technology, the demand for steel has decreased, and the improvement of Chinese steel quality has caused some Japanese overseas factories to choose Chinese imported steel, which has further exacerbated the plight of the Japanese steel industry.
Under the interaction of such internal and external factors and difficulties, these Japanese car companies, steel companies, and even other industries are naturally worried. So, some of the scandals listed above have also happened...
Future outlook
Looking back at the handling of the Kobe Steel and Nissan scandals, both companies eventually took the blame, but public opinion still had a huge impact. In the words of Hiroshi Kawasaki, president of Kobe Steel, "Kobe Steel's reliability has dropped to zero."
Still, their choice to publicly apologize and conduct a comprehensive self-examination is commendable. Therefore, several years have passed, and the scandal has finally been "turned into a small thing and a small thing" after the company has assumed its due responsibility.
△ The representative of the company in this scandal bowed and apologized / 日テレNEWS
From Kobe Steel and Nissan Motor to the current five major car companies, the frequent quality problems and counterfeiting scandals in Japan's manufacturing industry have undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to its international reputation. Although these companies have taken remedial measures such as public apologies and comprehensive self-examinations after the fact, are they enough to restore the trust of the public and the market?
In today's highly interconnected world, the speed of information dissemination allows every scandal to be quickly amplified, and the power cannot be underestimated, and the negative impact is far-reaching and long-lasting.
Therefore, if Japan's manufacturing industry wants to regain its former glory, it must fundamentally reinvent itself, strengthen internal control, and reshape corporate culture.
In this way, this crisis of trust is a painful but necessary baptism, which reminds all enterprises that while pursuing business interests, they should adhere to the bottom line of integrity and quality, and only in this way can they win long-term development and respect.
△ Raigen / NTV NEWS
This is not only an issue that needs to be reconsidered by the Japanese manufacturing industry, but also an important issue that all companies around the world should be aware of.