Kobe Steel Ltd.'s offices are expected to be searched by Japanese police and prosecutors in the current week, Bloomberg News reported May 31, citing Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun.
The steel manufacturer's offices in Kobe, Tokyo, and its plants will be investigated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for allegedly violating the unfair competition prevention law.
A spokesman for Kobe Steel, Yoshitsugu Nishimura, said that the company has no knowledge of the upcoming investigation.
In October 2017, Kobe Steel admitted that a portion of its aluminum and copper products were falsely labeled to show that they met the specifications requested by customers.
The incident involved about 19,300 tonnes of aluminum products, 19,400 tonnes of aluminum castings and forgings and 2,200 tonnes of copper products shipped from September 2016 to August 2017.
