Mitsubishi Motors’ Shares Slide Amid Scandal

Mitsubishi Motors’ shares fell 12.4% on Monday after a weekend raid on its headquarters and reports that its president would resign to take responsibility for a growing scandal over decades of hiding vehicle defects.

Mitsubishi shares finished down 48 cents at $3.39 a share on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

President Katsuhiko Kawasoe promised a thorough housecleaning.

“Together with my management team, I will . . . devise a set of measures to rectify the situation and to prevent any recurrence, as well as taking strict disciplinary action within the company,” he said Monday.

The Nihon Keizai financial newspaper and Kyodo news agency both reported Monday that Kawasoe had decided to resign, citing unidentified company sources. A Mitsubishi spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied the reports.

The auto maker gave the government a report last week saying that Mitsubishi workers and managers had knowingly and systematically hidden about 64,000 consumer complaints about auto defects since 1977.

Since last month, Mitsubishi has recalled 620,000 vehicles for defects that include failing brakes, fuel leaks and malfunctioning clutches. The recalls came only after government inspectors found documents about the defects hidden in a company locker room.

None of the defects has been known to cause any deaths, though several accidents in Japan have been attributed to them.

Consumer reaction in Japan has been muted and sales have not yet taken a hit. Car sales in August totaled about 12,000, up from 10,800 the same month last year.