Japan's Fair Trade Commission plans to issue an advisory to Nissan Motor shortly to prevent a recurrence of unfair reductions in payments to subcontracting auto parts makers, sources close to the matter said Monday.
The reductions by Nissan are estimated to total about ¥3 billion for more than 30 suppliers over the past several years, the biggest amount since the subcontractor law was enacted in 1956.
Nissan has already paid the amount back to the subcontractors, the sources said.
The automaker is believed to have unilaterally reduced payments by several percent from the amounts agreed in advance with the subcontractors, such as a tire wheel maker.
Nissan may have started the practice decades ago. The subcontractors apparently could not refuse the reductions for fear of losing jobs with Nissan.
One subcontractor saw the amount of payments reduced by over ¥1 billion, the sources said.
The law does not allow any reduction in payments to subcontractors once the amounts are decided, unless there is a justifiable reason such as supply of defective products.
Nissan said in a statement that it is waiting for the final results of investigations by the FTC into some transactions.
The FTC is strengthening its monitoring so that small and midsize businesses will be able to pass on higher labor and other costs to large client companies.
In December 2022, the FTC disclosed the names of 13 organizations, including auto parts makers Denso and Toyota Industries, that refused price increase requests from suppliers without holding negotiations.