Toyo quake protection scandal grows

Tokyo – Toyo Tire has published a report stating that 90 more buildings have been confirmed to have non-compliant earthquake-proof rubber shock absorbers.

In a 21 April company release, Toyo added that the protection systems for nine other buildings could not be verified due to lack of test data from when the rubber was made.

Japanese news agency Nikkei reported that Toyo Tire supplied 855 shock absorbers for the 99 buildings by January 2015, adding that the data seemed to have been falsified since 1996.

The announcement takes the number of buildings involved in the scandal to 145: Toyo originally announced the issue for 55 buildings in March.

According to Nikkei, four development employees are suspected of falsifying data on the rubber material.

The company conceded that the issue had happened since 1996, when it began selling quake shock absorbers.

Initially, Toyo linked the false reporting to a single employee, but three more are now suspected of being involved.