Source: Diamond (Japan), source undisclosed
Nidec Corporation, the world’s largest precision‑motor manufacturer, is mired in a sweeping accounting scandal. According to Japanese financial media Diamond, the firm is considering booking around ¥1 trillion (USD 6.3 billion) of impairment charges for the fiscal year ending March 2026 to rectify group‑wide accounting irregularities.
The report triggered a 17% plunge in Nidec’s share price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Diamond reported that Nidec’s board of directors voted last week to remove President Mitsuya Kishida. New management is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday.
The accounting malpractices have affected multiple overseas subsidiaries across Italy, Switzerland and China, with its automotive inverter business under heavy scrutiny. The scandal forced founder and former chairman Shigenobu Nagamori to step down earlier this year. Investigators and market observers attribute the widespread financial misconduct to the group’s high‑pressure corporate culture, driven by aggressive top‑down performance targets set under Nagamori’s leadership.
Prior third‑party probes found that improper accounting had inflated consolidated net profit by roughly ¥160.7 billion. The market had previously anticipated impairment losses of about ¥250 billion. The reported ¥1‑trillion write‑off would nearly erase Nidec’s total accumulated profits over the past decade.
Nidec acknowledged it is reviewing executive changes and potential large‑scale asset write‑downs, but stressed no final decisions have been made, and the exact amount remains under internal review.
Beyond accounting fraud, the group has also been implicated in product‑quality violations, including unauthorized changes to components and production processes without customer approval. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has designated Nidec as a special‑watch stock over severe internal‑control deficiencies.