We firmly believe that to rebuild our operations under a new management we must first dig up all quality-related problems rooted in the past and ensure that such problems never happen again. Only then will we be able to put this new structure for legal compliance to work as part of our business revitalization plan.

Extended investigation into past repair directives

Following an announcement on June 2 regarding 92 cases of past repair directives dating back to December 1993, MMC filed seven weekly reports to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on its progress in dealing with the issue. On July 29, the company finalized all submissions for 35 of the 92 cases that required recalls or improvement measures. MMC will continue its investigations to ensure nothing has been overlooked.

Internal investigation into cause and background of quality problems

MMC's Corporate Social Responsibility Promotion Office has employed a group of 13 external lawyers to look into the cause of the company's quality problems. Although subject to change as the investigation develops, the main areas the group is looking into include:

• The internal decision making process for past repair directives and the way in which they were carried out.
• Why it was decided in 2000 to only look into repair directives dating back to April 1998.
• Why the company's investigations and reports were limited and didn't include the 92 new cases.
• The company's corporate culture at the time that allowed this to occur.

The legal group will provide regular reports to the Business Ethics Committee and steer its investigations in consultation with the committee.

In a separate move, MMC and Mitsubishi Fuso have gathered together a group of lawyers to look into the wheel hub and clutch housing problems at Mitsubishi Fuso. MMC believes that, while this problem is related to truck and bus operations, it is important to gain accurate information on the issue to create measures to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.

Upcoming plans

MMC plans to report the findings of its extended investigation into past repair directives and defect information on August 26 based on a detailed analysis of the defects and post-market measures. To prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future, the CSR Promotion Office will use the lessons learned through the company's extended investigations in its supervisory role over the Quality Assurance Office.

The company will also expand the scope of its investigations into the cause and background of quality problems as needed, which makes it hard to determine the timing of the final report at this stage.

Once the findings of the investigation are known, the CSR Promotion Office will take the lead to draw up a plan to prevent future occurrences and clarify responsibilities. The office will also report its plans to the Business Ethics Committee and ask for feedback.

Public announcements will be made as soon as possible taking into consideration the progress of ongoing judicial proceedings.