Police searched the Tokyo headquarters of Swiss-based Schindler Holding Ltd. on Monday morning in connection with a fatal accident involving one of the firm's elevators last week, while the infrastructure ministry plans to check all of the firm's 5,500 lifts nationwide.
Last Wednesday, Toshiko Maeda, a 63-year-old cleaner at an Apa-run hotel in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, was crushed to death when the Schindler elevator she was boarding suddenly started going up.
It was later learned the hotel elevator lacked a safety feature that would have prevented it from moving if its doors were open.