The third meeting, attended by all committee members, was held at Mitsubishi Motors' Okazaki plant.

After observing development (design, engineering, testing), production preparations, and production processes, the committee members joined the first business ethics seminar at the plant to see firsthand the company's efforts to promote compliance on the factory floor. The committee members also had the chance to talk with the Women's Evaluation Team, a special group of female employees formed to include the opinion of women in car manufacturing.

The committee members then visited the Quality Affairs Office to check the documents involved and process conducted from when product information reports are drawn up to when the company decides to submit a recall. Discussions were also held with employees involved in investigating the company's recall problems.

Some comments offered by committee members today include:

• Even though the company has decided to close the factory, I felt morale on the factory floor seemed to be still high and the factory is competent as ever. Industrial housekeeping seems to be fully implemented too.
  
  
• Business ethics start in the workplace. Looking at the data of the percentage of good products yielded by the manufacturing process the first time through, it is worth noting that organization on the factory floor has not eroded.
  
  
• I can see that development systems are gradually improving. But I think there wasn't enough invested in testing and developing in the past and the company needs to continue its improvements.
  
  
• The fact that female employees proactively offer their opinion is a very positive step towards ensuring total compliance throughout the company. But I still feel that executive positions for females are far too few.
  
  
• It is important to include the opinions and sense of female employees to come up with unique designs and concepts. I hope the company can gather these opinions together and act on them more to give female employees a chance to show some leadership and train other females working below them.
  
  
• I was able to see how the process for determining recalls is done systematically using electronic data for product information reports and technical letters. But I think you should make the process as simple as possible. Also, you should revise the process to include the opinion of departments other than the Quality Affairs Office.
  
  
• I was able to get a good understanding of the enormous amount of work being done in the investigations related to repair directives. I made a strong point to not stop here and continue the investigations.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for August following a report on the company's extended investigations.

Noboru Matsuda
Business Ethics Committee Chairman

Mitsubishi Motors Statement on Third Meeting of Business Ethics Committee

Mitsubishi Motors wishes to thank the members of the Business Ethics Committee, an advisory body for the Mitsubishi Motors board of directors, for taking the time out of their busy schedules to visit our Okazaki plant today.

We believe today's visit was a good chance for all the committee members to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

The committee members offered some valuable opinions today including renaming product information reports, reviewing the process used to determine recalls, and making more use of female employees in developing products that offer a female touch.

Mitsubishi Motors intends to incorporate the opinions of the committee members into the company's activities as soon as possible. The company will announce detailed plans and the timing of implementing such moves when finalized.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation