Japan to slap Toyota with corrective order for certification violations

TOKYO: The Japanese government will issue a corrective order to Toyota Motor today due to violations in the company's vehicle certification procedures, the transport ministry said in a statement.

Transport ministry officials plan to hand over the corrective order to Toyota CEO Koji Sato when they meet at the ministry at 4pm (3pm in Malaysia), according to the statement.

A Toyota spokesman confirmed that the world's top-selling automaker's chief executive was scheduled to receive the order at the ministry at that time.

The spokesman declined to comment further on the issue, including whether any new irregularities in the certification applications for its car models were found.

Public broadcaster NHK said earlier today it would be the first corrective order issued to Toyota and would come in response to the discovery of new irregularities.

Toyota said earlier this month it did not find any new cases of wrongdoing in car model certification applications beyond the ones it had already reported last month.

Toyota and four other vehicle makers admitted in June they had submitted either flawed or manipulated data when applying for certification of vehicles.

Toyota's wrongdoing involved three production models - the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross - and discontinued versions of four other models, including one sold under luxury Lexus brand.

The companies conducted the investigation after the transport ministry ordered industry-wide checks of certification practices following a safety test scandal at Toyota's Daihatsu compact car unit.