Toray falsified tire cord data for a decade — the tires went on cars worldwide

In November 2017, Toray Industries, a major Japanese materials company, admitted that its subsidiary Toray Hybrid Cord had been falsifying strength data for tire reinforcement materials for approximately 10 years. The falsified data made the tire cord appear stronger than it actually was.

The affected materials were supplied to major tire manufacturers, and the tires were used on vehicles worldwide. The admission came as part of the broader wave of quality data falsification scandals in Japanese manufacturing that also hit Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi Materials and others.

Toray's stock fell following the admission, and the company's reputation for quality was damaged. The case illustrated how the Japanese manufacturing sector's quality crisis was not isolated to one company but reflected systemic problems in how quality data was collected, reported and verified across the supply chain.