Mitsubishi Motors' current situation can be described as difficult. On September 1, 2004, the Yokohama Summary Court held the first public trial on Mitsubishi Motors' concealment of vehicle design defects.

In court, the defendant, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks and Buses, former chairman of the board of directors, Usami Takashi, argued this way.

The courtroom was packed.

At 10 a.m., the three defendants including Usami Taka, Hanawa Ryoo, and Koshikawa Tadashi, and the Mitsubishi Motors attorney walked into the court and stood side by side in the dock with their heads lowered.

Although they all wore crisp suits without exception, the bright clothes could not hide the fatigue on their faces.

Maybe they can't understand that a once-powerful mid-level and senior figure in Mitsubishi Motors, one of Japan's five largest automobile companies, is now in jail and being criticized by thousands of people.

At the same time that their fortunes changed dramatically, Mitsubishi Motors, the company they had worked for for decades, also became the target of public criticism for concealing quality problems. Its performance plummeted, and the downward trend still shows no sign of being stopped.

So far, its sales have been only about half of the same period last year for nine consecutive months.

In the battle between social responsibility and corporate interests, Mitsubishi Motors made the wrong choice and was despised by the world. Now it is almost reduced to a street rat that everyone shouts about, and its business is on the verge of bankruptcy.

As a result, Mitsubishi, a Japanese car brand that has created countless glorious myths, has slumped and almost withered because of the shadow of deceiving the world.

For Mitsubishi Motors, what has happened in the past six months or so is like a nightmare TV series, and the beginning of the whole story has to be traced back to two accidents in 2002.

The "Nightmare" began on January 10, 2002, in Yokohama, Japan.

Housewife Okamoto Shiho was walking along a certain road with her two children.

To them, the day seemed like it should be as ordinary as any other day.

However, a heavy truck completely changed their fate.

As the truck rumbled toward them, something unexpected happened.

The left front wheel of the moving truck suddenly came off, and the tire, which weighed about 140 kilograms, hit the mother and son at high speed with strong inertia.

The three people were unable to dodge, resulting in a serious traffic accident in which the 29-year-old mother died on the spot and her two children were injured.

How could a perfectly good tire suddenly fall off the axle?

In response to this strange-sounding traffic accident, Japanese domestic media have asked this question.

After investigation, the heavy-duty truck was produced by Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Company, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.

At the time of the incident, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Company was still affiliated with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation's truck division. It was separated from the company in 2003 and established as an independent branch.

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism requested Mitsubishi Motors to immediately investigate the matter and submit an investigation report.

On the fourth day after the accident, that is, January 14, 2002, former Mitsubishi Motors Managing Director Ryoo Hanawa and others explained to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism that the accident was caused by "poor maintenance and overloading of the truck."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism instructed Mitsubishi Motors to recall the cars.

In order to avoid car recalls, the then vice president Usami, at the suggestion of the company's truck department, organized an internal meeting to discuss countermeasures.

After four rounds of negotiation, they decided to increase the replacement standard of wheel shell wear from 0.5 microns to 0.8 microns to reduce the replacement rate of parts and avoid car recalls.

According to reports, if replaced according to previous standards, the replacement rate is estimated to be about 40%.

There are reports that before submitting the report, Usami gave instructions to his subordinates: avoid car recalls and make false explanations to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

In the end, Mitsubishi Motors lied in its report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: "As long as the wheel shells are replaced with wheel casings with a wear rate of 0.8 microns or more, we can ensure that such accidents will not happen again." The incident was finally calmed down for the time being.

However, not long after the incident, another traffic accident once again pushed Mitsubishi Motors to the media and the public.

October 16, 2002, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

A heavy truck driving on Sanyo Expressway lost control due to the sudden detachment of the drive shaft, and instantly and violently crashed into the building of the Sanyo Expressway toll office, killing the 39-year-old Kagoshima truck driver.

Unfortunately, people discovered that the truck responsible for the accident was a product of Mitsubishi Motors, and Mitsubishi Motors' explanation for this is still: "poor maintenance" and "not prone to recurrence."

The causes of both traffic accidents sound strange.

Is this just a random coincidence?

After investigating its background, it was found that the same car had been involved in many similar accidents in the past.

Reminiscent of the fact that Mitsubishi Motors concealed Pajero's quality problems in 2000, people are inevitably suspicious.

As a result, the sensitive media became active and pushed Mitsubishi Motors to the public again.

People are always paying attention to various developments in the investigation of the accident.

Afterwards, police from Kanagawa and Yamaguchi searched Mitsubishi Motors but found no clues.

However, fires at Mitsubishi Motors or traffic accidents caused by quality problems such as clutches are still frequently reported in the newspapers. The media and public opinion have become more and more suspicious of Mitsubishi Motors, and their opinions have become more and more sharp.