TOKYO, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Nissan Motor Co. said on Thursday that it will suspend shipment of new cars from all of its domestic plants for two weeks after it found out that flawed inspection still carried on after it apologized for the malpractice earlier this month.
The automaker's CEO Hiroto Saikawa told a press conference that final inspections at four of its six domestic plants were still conducted by uncertified personnel even after the company had apologized and decided to recall some 1.2 million vehicles over the malpractice.
The continued malpractice brought Nissan into hot water again, as people question the internal control of the automaker.
"I deeply apologize to everyone who trusted our preventive measures," said Sakaiwa on Thursday.
The incident happened just as Kobe Steel, another bastion of Japan's manufacturing sector, was under fire for a data fabrication scandal.
The scandals have cast doubts over corporate governance in the manufacturing industry and beyond in Japan, raising concerns over the quality of the "Made in Japan" brand.
Nissan's misconduct was first brought into light following an on-site inspection by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Sept. 18.
It was found that Nissan had "assistant inspectors" instead of certified inspectors do the safety check before the cars leave the factories.
The ministry asked Nissan to redo the inspections and instructed other automakers to review their own operations.
A total of 21 models manufactured in six factories in Japan were involved in the malpractice, including the Note, Cube, CT-R, March, Skyline, and Leaf electric car, among others.
Saikawa apologized on Oct. 2 and said the company had begun an internal probe into the malpractice and checks were "100 percent being conducted by qualified inspectors from Sept. 20."
The company also announced then that it would recall over 1.2 million vehicles in Japan which were produced between October 2014 and September 2017 and underwent flawed safety inspections.
The recall was expected to cost the company some 25 billion yen (220 million U.S. dollars).
