Toyo Tires has become a premium partner to Fortuna Düsseldorf after entering into a two-year agreement with the German second division (2. Bundesliga) football club. This deal was announced the day the Bundesliga announced its schedule for the 2016/17 season and only a short time after Toyo Tire & Rubber shared news of its new two-year sponsorship of Japanese club Gamba Osaka.
A new method of assembling tyres that promises to improve quality and productivity while eliminating the risk of human error has been introduced within a Bridgestone Corporation plant in Japan. The tyre maker has announced the installation of the new Examation system at its flagship Hikone passenger car tyre production site. But what is Examation?
As atonement for the “tremendous trouble and concern” caused to customers and stakeholders a result its improper fuel consumption test reporting, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has announced the resignation of company president and chief operating officer Tetsuro Aikawa and that of executive vice-president Ryugo Nakao. Their resignations will take effect on 24 June, the day of Mitsubishi’s ordinary shareholders meeting.
Following revelations of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s use of excessive tyre pressure to influence fuel consumption tests in April, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism sent out surveys to 41 manufacturers whose vehicles possess type certification in Japan. The manufacturers were required to report back on test practices by 18 May. Suzuki shared with the ministry that “some discrepancies” were found between the Ministry’s regulations covering emission and fuel efficiency and the methods it actually uses. Suzuki denies that these incongruities are evidence of data manipulating, cheating or, in its own words, “acts of injustice.”
After admitting to fuel efficiency test irregularities dating back as much as two decades, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has established a special investigation committee to establish precisely what happened. As things stand the committee is made up entirely of external members. Mitsubishi admitted “Improper conduct in fuel consumption testing” on 20 April 2016.
A simple “trick” – or perhaps we should say “cheating” or “fraud” – has been common practice in the European automotive industry, to the displeasure of environmental organisations: Place a car with excessive tyre pressure on a dynamometer and – voilà – lower fuel consumption levels and emissions are recorded thanks to the ‘optimised’ rolling resistance. Mitsubishi has conceded carrying out this practice in Japan with test data submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. This time round it doesn’t affect, as in the case of Volkswagen and its ‘cheat’ software, millions of vehicles, rather ‘only’ 625,000 small cars, the majority of these off-take production for Nissan.
Bridgestone Corporation has become a Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Gold Partner after concluding an agreement with the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In addition, the company will support Japan’s national Paralympic team, starting this year with the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and covering both the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in South Korea and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Over the next two years, production capacity for 18-inch and larger high-performance tyres will increase by about 20 per cent at Yokohama rubber’s Shinshiro plant in Japan in order to meet growing demand for these highly profitable products. Work on a new plant production line will begin this May. This will go on stream in June 2017 and reach full capacity by the following April.
A ceremony held on 20 January marked the official opening of Yokohama Rubber’s new winter tyre testing facility in Japan. The ribbon on the Tire Test Center of Hokkaido (TTCH) was cut by a number of dignitaries, including Yokohama Rubber president Hikomitsu Noji and Masahito Nishikawa, mayor of host city Asahikawa.
Falken Tyre will present its new brand identity at the upcoming Tokyo Auto Salon 2016 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture from Friday 15thJanuary to Sunday 17th January 2016.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. will again participate in the Tokyo Auto Salon, this year held 15-17 January at Makuhari Messe. According to the company, the Yokohama exhibit will showcase both the company’s tyres and aluminium wheels, with a particular emphasis on the Advan global flagship brand.
Yujiro Kanahara has been named president of Nippon Goodyear Ltd, the supplier of Goodyear tyres to the Japanese market. He joins Goodyear following a 36 year career with Bridgestone Corporation, where he served in executive leadership roles in Japan and key markets around the world prior to his retirement from the company in 2014. Kanahara succeeds Dale Brackin, who served as interim president during the transition period since October when Goodyear acquired Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ 75 per cent interest in the Nippon Goodyear business.
The NISMO-run Motul Nissan GT-R claimed the Japan’s 2015 Super GT Championship title having finished second at the Motegi GT 250km Race, the championship’s final round. The team ran on Michelin tyres, making this the fourth time in five years that the title has been claimed on the French manufacturer’s rubber.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries will present its latest “Advanced 4D Nano Design” materials development technology at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show, with a booth displaying both Falken Tyre and Dunlop brands. The show runs 29 October to 8 November 2015 at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan. In Europe, Falken tyres have achieved double-digit performance improvements with the earlier application of these design techniques used to develop Ecorun-branded products. With a Dunlop-branded version already on sale in Japan Sumitomo has already previewed a prototype Falken “fossil fuel-free” tyre for the European market, and the 4D Nano design process has been used in their development too.
Team Toyo Tires Drift driver Masato Kawabata has claimed the 2015 D1 Grand Prix Championship in Japan, his third D1GP championship victory. Driving the 1000-horsepower 35RX D-Spec Nissan GTR to another series victory with Toyo Proxes R1R tyres, Kawabata claimed the 2015 series with an accumulated points lead.
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