Subaru Also Fakes Inspection

Subaru Corporation announced on Friday that it had been leaving its inspection for assembled cars to the workers without necessary license for over thirty years. One of the major carmakers in Japan is going to offer recall for 255,000 cars. Following unlicensed inspection scandal in Nissan, Subaru’s negligence in safety control harms fundamental credibility on Japanese automobiles.

The wrong inspection has been done in Gunma Factory of Subaru, which is the only factory to finish building up the cars. After Nissan revealed its wrong practice in inspection, Subaru made internal investigation on its inspection system. The result was that the factory had been let unlicensed workers finish the inspection of the finished cars. There were four unlicensed inspectors at the time of October 1^st.

The final inspection those workers involved in was what the government would do to check the cars. It is the government that relies the carmakers acting as governmental inspectors. Each carmaker has its own standard to educate and license the inspectors. Subaru has been imposing the workers paper examination on knowledge and skill to obtain inspection license. It takes two or six months to take the license, depending on whether the worker has license of automobile mechanic.

To a fundamental contradiction, Subaru has been requiring the workers to have a certain period of experience in inspection process in the factory. It means that unlicensed workers are involved in the inspection to obtain the license. Those four unlicensed inspectors had been involved in the inspection with other 245 licensed inspectors. It was not because scarcity of labor force, but long-time custom to educate inspectors.

President of Subaru, Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, expressed sincere apology for its wrong custom. The company makes a major recall for twelve types of its cars, which is approximately costing ¥5 billion. They include small-size sports car named “86,” which is produced by Subaru and sold in the brand of Toyota. Mini vehicles are excluded from the recall.

Asahi Shimbun quoted a joke. “An American carmaker ordered car parts to factories in Russia and Japan with condition of ratio of defected product one out of a thousand. Russian factory implored with concern of not meeting the deadline. Japanese factory asked a blueprint for making defected product.” It is based on a myth that Japanese carmakers have skills to produce perfect products. The myth can no longer be told with scandal in Nissan and Subaru.