Japan’s Kobe Steel indicted by prosecutors over fabricating product quality data

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Kobe Steel Ltd. was indicted by prosecutors Thursday on suspicion its instances of falsifying product quality data have violated a competition law.

By mass-misrepresenting its inspection data and providing false information about the strength and durability of its products, authorities believe the firm, Japan’s third-largest steelmaker, is criminally liable and will face criminal charges.

The steelmaker is accused of manipulating data to meet the specific needs of its clients at three of its plants in Japan. The plants are in Tochigi, Yamaguchi, and Mie prefectures, according to the indictment.

The scandal-mired steelmaker said in October last year that it had found cases of improprieties regarding inspection data that failed to meet industry inspection standards.

The results of an internal probe initially found that products sold that had their inspection data fabricated were shipped to hundreds of companies.

Kobe Steel has admitted sending quality assurance certificates to its clients between September 2016 and September 2017, despite the products not meeting the requisite standards.

At the conclusion of a probe and in a report released in March, Kobe Steel said in order to make it look like their products met their clients’ specifications, they deliberately falsified the strength and other data pertaining to products supplied to over 600 companies at home and overseas.

Data was manipulated at 23 domestic and overseas plants, the report said.

Source: XINHUA