On Thursday, June 20, 2019, DRRT, along with its local counsel Koga & Partners, successfully filed the first complaint against Kobe Steel, Ltd in Tokyo District Court, claiming over ¥5 billion in damages. Kobe Steel is Japan’s third largest steelmaker, as well as a major supplier of aluminum, copper and other products around the world.

On October 8, 2017 Kobe admitted that, in order to meet quality standards, it had been falsifying test data for its aluminum and copper parts, which was incorporated into reports on Kobe product strength and durability. The misleading reports were delivered to over 200 companies, worldwide, for approximately five decades. Kobe products are used in planes and automobiles around the world by manufactures including Toyota, Honda and Subaru. Kobe’s stock price originally dropped almost 40% from October 8 to October 13 (a market cap loss of almost ¥100 billion).

DRRT is currently considering filing a second wave in early October. If you have any eligible transactions of Kobe Steel, please email clientrelations@drrt.com for a risk- and cost-free analysis and legal recommendation.