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"It is mind-boggling that MMC management had little sense of ethics or responsibility." - Mitsuhiko Morimoto, Yomiuri Research Institute
August 4, 2004. Tokyo. Bloomberg reported that MMC's first quarter loss widened by 7 percent to 54.7 billion yen ($490 million) - 36.86 yen a share, for the quarter ending June 30. Sales fell by 8.1 percent to 557.6 billion yen. Its global sales fell 5 percent to 360,000 vehicles in the first quarter. Domestic sales fell 31 percent to 58,000 units. Sales in Asia rose 2.3 percent to 178,000 vehicles. North America sales dropped 30 percent to 53,000 units. Sales in Europe rose 9.4 percent to 58,000 vehicles.
The company expects the group net loss to widen to 230 billion yen in the current business year from 215.4 billion yen loss in the previous period. Sales may drop 11 percent to 2.25 trillion yen. Mitsubishi Motors expects the domestic auto sales slide to slow from a 50 percent drop this quarter, to a 40 percent decrease in the October-December period and 30 percent in the final three months of its business year.
July 29. A physician in Tokyo reported that many of his patients seeking help with male menopause are Mitsubishi Motors workers.
SPECIAL: July 28, 2004. MMC closed at 98 yens, the first time in its history to close below 100 yens. ADDED: On July 29, the stock ended trading at 92 yens after being down to 90 yens. On August 3, it closed at 79 yens.
July 17, 2004. MMC has decided on outside experts for its Business Ethics Committee. They are Konoe Kawagishi, former vice chairman of the editorial committee at the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper; Takahiro Fujimoto, professor of the University of Tokyo; Kazuko Miyamoto, head of consumer research at the Nippon Association of Consumer Specialists; and lawyer Kazuo Mura. (Kyodo News)
July 16, 2004. MMC indicated that Normal plant's production may be cut to 120,000 a year in view of lower demand for its vehicles in the USA. Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that 600 to 700 could their jobs at the manufacturing plant.
In other news Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is allowing it to use Industrial Revitalisation Law designed to help struggling companies rehabilitate to lower its taxes by about 5 million dollars. Chief Executive Yoichiro Okazaki said MMC would also consider asking state-backed Development Bank of Japan for low-interest loans, permitted for firms covered by the law.
July 14. Phoenix Capital had earlier promised 100 billion yen. Well, today it paid 74 billion yen. JP Morgan Chase had promised Y150 billion, but it paid only Y126 billion. Against the original promised total funding of Y546 billion, Mitsubishi Motors received Y496 billion, Y50 billion short of its target. Its stock price fell by 23, a 14 percent drop, to all-time new low of 137.
July 13, 2004. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus fired a quality-control manager today for falsifying information on the seriousness of fractured clutch housings in two of its large trucks by stating that they were partial cracks. A days ago, the transport ministry had shown its displeasure with the truck maker over this.
July 9, 2004. Tokyo. (Kyodo news). MMC seems to have asked its union to approve its plan to speed-up closing of its Okazaki, Aichi plant. It plans to move most of its 1,800 plant workforce to Kurashiki, Okayama plant. A few will be shifted to the Pajero SUV plant in Sakahogi, Gifu, and some to plants either in the town of Kosei, Shiga, or in Kyoto. Union approval should be a formality.
July 9. Toyota announced that it has plans to accept some of skilled assembly workers from the Okazaki plant and has informally started the process.
July 6, 2004. Nihon Keizai newspaper reported that the company said in its fiscal 2003 securities report for investors that its common shares may be delisted. Its shares fell on this news. Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a credit analyst at BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) said: "When Mitsubishi Motors shares are delisted, it makes it difficult for the automaker to raise money from the market. Their shareholders will also lose the market to buy and sell shares and lack liquidity." Matsumoto said that if the Tokyo-based automaker sells as much as 546 billion yen of preferred and common shares to companies such as Phoenix Capital Co., stock market regulations may require the company to delist its shares. [Bloomberg]
July 6, 2004. Tokyo. [Bloomberg] Japan's government is looking into ways to help save Mitsubishi Motors Corp from the impact of slumping sales and deteriorating brand name, Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan's Trade Minister, said in Tokyo.
July 2, 2004. [Financial Times] DaimlerChrysler is set to reclassify its investment in Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) as "non-strategic and available for sale" later this year. Kurt Sanger, analyst at ING, said that as well as clearing the way for an eventual sale, the dilution of DaimlerChrysler's stake to less than 20 per cent would enable it to treat its share of MMC's forecast net loss of Y230bn for the year to March 2005 as a balance sheet item, removing it from its profit and loss account. It is understood negotiations are under way to dissolve a range of "alliance projects" in transmissions and engines that had not yet been announced publicly.
July 2, 2004. Yokohama (Kyodo). (Kyodo, Japan Times) Former Mitsubibishi Motors President Katsuhiko Kawasoe, former director Yuzo Murata, Takashi Usami, former vice president and former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus, Tatsuro Nakagami, former executive director, were all charged with negligence resulting in a fatal accident in 2002 involving a truck built by the automaker. These four were arrested on June 10.
Accoding to the prosecutors, MMC was aware of the clutch defect in its trucks as early as 1996 but didn't issue a recall. During 2000, when another scandal had erupted at MMC, authorities ordered MMC to come clean but it didn't happen.
On October 19, 2002 a truck's drive shaft fell off while it was on a highway in Yamaguchi Prefecture, disabling the brake. The 9-ton truck passed through an expressway tollgate and slammed into a building, killing the 39-year-old driver.
Usami has already been charged with Road Trucking Vehicle Law violations and professional negligence resulting in death and injury in connection with a fatal accident in Yokohama in 2002. In the Yokohama incident, a 29-year-old woman, Shiho Okamoto, died after being struck down by a tire that had come off a Mitsubishi-made truck. She had been walking along a street with her two sons, who were also injured.
Arrests and Indictments
Major Events Affecting Mitsubishi Motors Share Prices
Mitsubishi Ethics Issues
World auto markets and Mitsubishi Motors's Competition
Older stories in reverse chronological order (Newer ones first)
High levels of male menopause among Mitsubishi Motors workersOkazaki plant closure speed up
Investors question group Management during Shareholders' meeting in June
Plan Revisions during Shareholders' meeting in June
Japanese-government boycotts and bans Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso
New Restructuring Plan Revised soon after announcement because of poor sales and new recall scandals.
New Restructuring Plan Details
Pre-announcement Leaks of Restructuring
Kabushiki Ombudsman Group Plans to Sue Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Rumors of MMC's Rescue Plan
Investment Amount, Models Slashed
MMC Crisis Management Team Selected
Mitsubishi Group Shocked by Daimler's Decision
Daimler Chrysler Decides to Quit Mitsubishi Motors' Resue Plan
Daimer and Mitsubishi Motors Planning Rescue Together
Mitsubishi's Shame by Time Magazine Asia (selected material)