Daihatsu Motor Co. ceased operations at three of its four plants in Japan on Monday after it was discovered that the company had been falsifying vehicle safety tests. The remaining factory is set to stop production on Tuesday, bringing domestic production to a complete standstill for the automaker, which holds a 30% share of Japan’s minicar market. It remains uncertain as to when production will resume, but the shutdown is anticipated to extend until the end of January.
A total of 174 irregularities spanning across 64 models—whether in development or no longer in production—have been revealed by Daihatsu, prompting the decision to halt production. The company manufactures 27 models at the four plants with about 930,000 units produced during fiscal 2022.
The shutdown began with the closure of the company’s Kyoto, Shiga, and Oita plants on Monday, with the plant at the automaker’s headquarters in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, set to follow. While some employees will be tasked with cleaning the plants during the shutdown, others have been forced to take time off from work.
One male employee at the Shiga plant lamented, “I don’t know when I can start working again. I might have to find another job while I can still scrape by.” Meanwhile, Daihatsu’s labor union, consisting of approximately 11,000 members, is demanding that the company provide employees with at least 90% of their regular pay during the shutdown.
