At least five more Japanese companies caught up in data fraud scandal

China

At least five more Japanese companies caught up in data fraud scandal

2024-09-24 16:58 Last Updated At：09-25 00:37

At least five rail transit companies in Japan have been found to have falsified data during an urgent investigation demanded by the transport ministry following the disclosure of data tampering by the country's largest railway operator.

The collective fraud represents the latest blow to the reputation of Japanese companies, which have been embroiled in a series of regulatory scandals in recent months, including in automobile manufacturing and health supplements.

Last Friday, the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) admitted that it had for years concealed data falsification related to the process of fitting wheels to axles.

From 2008 to 2017, the embedding pressure of around 4,900 axles was not within the standard range. Among them, the test data about 1,200 axles were arbitrarily modified to meet regulatory requirements, according to JR East.

The company said that the axles with data exceeding the standard range have been replaced, while the axles with data below the standard range have no safety issues and 76 of them are still in use.

Regarding the scandal, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan has decided to carry out a special security investigation into JR East.

It has also asked all rail transit companies in Japan to conduct urgent inspections and submit reports by the end of this month. So far, five of them have been found to have data falsification cases, including a train maintenance subsidiary of Tokyo Metro.

Patients rushed out from hospital building as 7.4-magnitude quake hits Indonesia, killing one

At least one person has died and several others have been hospitalized after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Maluku Strait early on Thursday morning, with the quake also causing varying degrees of damage to multiple buildings in Manado, the capital city of the North Sulawesi province. The quake struck at 06:48 local time Thursday at a magnitude of 7.4 and a depth of 30 kilometers, according to measurements by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

There were scenes of panic outside a hospital in Manado when the quake hit, with several seconds of intense shaking causing cracks to appear in the building of the medical facility which belongs to the Siloam private healthcare group.

Patients and medical staff were urgently evacuated to the roadside, with some seen in wheelchairs or still connected to intravenous (IV) drips, while others were even pushed out of the wards on their hospital beds. A car parked downstairs was hit by falling debris, shattering its windows.

"Some people were sleeping at the time, some had just undergone surgery, and others were receiving treatment. The earthquake damaged the hospital's ceiling, and I also saw some cracks in the walls," said Billy Lombok, the family member of a patient.

A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted following the quake as Indonesian authorities observed no significant sea level changes.