Posted on: Saturday, July 10, 2004

Mitsubishi to close plant in Japan to reduce costs

Associated Press

TOKYO — Money-losing Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said yesterday it wants to close one of its car assembly plants in Japan by the end of next year to speed up cost cuts as it battles a major scandal over defect cover-ups.

The Tokyo-based automaker announced earlier this year it will close its Okazaki plant in central Japan in the next four years as part of operations restructuring.

Mitsubishi Motors' sales have plunged following recalls of thousands of cars and trucks after acknowledging it had hidden auto defects. The carmaker had a similar scandal four years ago, when it admitted to a systematic cover-up of defects spanning decades and promised to stop the cover-ups.

Mitsubishi Motors proposed this week to its labor union a plan to start sending the 1,600 workers at the Okazaki plant from July 2005 to other Mitsubishi plants to shutter the plant by the end of next year, a company spokesman said on condition of anonymity.