The market capitalization of Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor has fallen by 2.9 trillion yen (18.5 billion dollars) during the week due to a scandal involving the falsification of data related to the safety and performance of vehicles. This was reported by the newspaper Nikkei.
This represents about 5% of the company's total capitalization. The decline in Toyota Motor shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange continued for almost all trading days after the violations became known on June 4. Experts and analysts note that this situation in the market can be related to the concerns of investors not only from the scandal itself, but also due to possible problems with the management of the corporation.
Toyota has identified falsification of data obtained during pedestrian crash protection tests for three models currently in production. It is about the Corolla Axio sedan, the Corolla Fielder station wagon and the Yaris Cross crossover. Their production has been suspended indefinitely. The annual production volume of these models is about 130,000 units, which is slightly more than 1% of the concern's total production figures.
Toyota in fiscal year 2023 (April 2023 - March 2024) became the first company in Japan whose operating profit exceeded 5 trillion yen (34.4 billion USD). Its worldwide sales amounted to more than 10.3 million cars, which is a record for the entire existence of the corporation.
In addition to Toyota, safety and operational data breaches were also found at other Japanese companies - Honda, Mazda, Suzuki and Yamaha. The investigation into the Japanese automakers comes after Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, was at the center of a crash-testing scandal last year.