CEO Speech Press Conference – June 14, 2002 (19:00)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we present to you a comprehensive report on our quality issues of the past.

As a result of our internal investigations over the last weeks, we intend to file 47 field actions with the MLIT.

This figure also includes 13 “shiji kaishu” - or repair directives - of the past.

Before I start my report, I would first like to apologize to our customers and the general public for the serious wrongdoings of our company in the past.

And I would also like to apologize for the recent arrests and indictments of former company executives.

We take this issue very seriously and we are committed more than ever to continue our strict path of rigorously cleaning up the past.

To demonstrate our determination for total openness and clarity we have developed an information package with many charts in the hope of providing you with the utmost degree of detail.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please let me explain how we arrived at the figure of 47 intended field actions.

It is the direct result of our new philosophy as I announced on May 20. We took a totally new and systematic approach in our internal investigations. In 2000, then MMC submitted all PQR's covering the period from April 1998 to June 2000.

However, we know by now the following 3 things:

1. The company's judgment in 2000 was selective.
2. It was incomplete.
3. In some cases, it even obviously ignored available information on quality and safety related matters,
   such as in the “Clutch Housing Case”.

Our approach is very different:

First of all, we expanded the timeframe for the relevant issues analyzed from 2 years (between 1998 and 2000) to 12 years, from today on all the way back to 1992.

Secondly, we broadened our search, going deep and wide.
We also looked at all past “shiji kaishu”, or repair directives.
We are now starting the process of confirming the figure of
47 necessary field actions with the MLIT.

In the end, this might result in some changes of this figure
up- or downward.

Chart 1 explains how we arrived at this figure of 47.

In the beginning we identified a base check-list of 97 quality-relevant issues, which are shown in column 1 on the left.
The figure of 97 includes 10 shiji kaishu. In a second step,
we added 62 additional shiji kaishu that go back as far as 1989.

Column 2 gives the total number of issues regarded as quality-relevant to be checked as 159.

• 10 out of these issues are export models with different specifications. We will handle these with the relevant authorities abroad.
• 101 issues that do not require further action as judged by our detailed technical assessment:
  We will finally confirm this with the MLIT.
• 1 issue is still under investigation.

The final figure in column 3 shows the total number of necessary field actions to be 47 - out of which 13 have been former shiji kaishu.
43 of these 47 field actions will be recalls and the remaining 4 improvement campaigns. About the handling of the remaining 58 shiji kaishu there will be further discussion and consensus necessary with the MLIT. From a technical assessment, we don't see a necessity for action.

We are confident that, for the very first time, we now have a clear and comprehensive picture of the past, and I would like to underline the word “past”.

But let me stress:

These internal investigations were obviously much more than just a mathematical exercise of known facts.

Rather they are the result of our strong,
cross-functional research and solid judgment on our part.

This clean-up process was only possible by overcoming the old corporate culture of concealment. In the past, customer safety was in some cases, obviously, weighted against other arguments. This directly led to the cover-up of recalls as we have to admit.

However, with the new management in place at Fuso, people are beginning to speak up. And with this new openness comes a new, strong commitment to social responsibility.

Today's announcement clearly marks a milestone in transforming Fuso into a transparent and socially responsible company.
To mark this milestone and to take responsibility for former wrongdoings of the company, our Board of Management has decided on a voluntary salary cut for our top management, to be implemented starting this month:

• The Chairman and I will donate 50% of our remuneration for 2 months.
• All 4 SVP's will donate 30% of their remuneration for 2 months.
• All 3 SEO's will donate 20% for 2 months.
• The 6 Executive Officers will donate 20%, also for 2 months.

Starting July, the voluntary donation will go to the “Foundation for Orphans from Automobile Accidents”.

My colleague Shiozawa will now provide you with the details on our quality issues.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Please refer to Chart 2 with a detailed overview on all 47 intended recalls and improvement campaigns, which we intend to file. I will outline the structure of this overview.

We have categorized the 47 items into ranking s from A to E , with the last 4 items describing the intended improvements campaigns. This categorization from A to E is explained at the bottom of this chart.
There is no rank D, because we have already taken necessary measure for rank D. From 38 to 43 in Chart 2b are newly found shiji kaishu. We will categorize them and will take appropriate measure as soon as possible.

For each item you will find – from left to right – details on the following points:

• Affected vehicle category.
• Date of former shiji kaishu if applicable.
• Defect phenomena.
• Number of PQRs and date of first PQR.
• Number of accidents, differentiating by physical injuries, property damage and smoke or fire incidents.
• Timeline for clarification of technical issue

The column to the far right gives the time needed for clarification of technical issues.
For further details on this timeframe, please refer to Chart 3. As you can see, there are three groups that differ issues taking up to 1 month, up to 2 months and up to 4 months. We will decide in each case for the appropriate measure and the implementation time framework.

Please now turn to Chart 4.This chart describes all those quality-relevant issues identified, which also came with injuries but which do not require action from Fuso as outlined before.

Please note that one case describes a tire burst, which led to a fatal accident in August 1995 on Hokuriku Express Highway in Niigata Prefecture . In this case, after the tire burst, the truck ran into an oncoming truck and the driver of the oncoming truck was, unfortunately, killed. The tire used in this case was of a standard specification and also used by other manufacturers for the same vehicle type.

The police investigation at that time has clearly concluded that there was no manufacturer's responsibility for this accident at all. The investigation back then was closed.I am mentioning this case only because we have once again researched it in our internal investigation and we can confirm the findings of the police back then, based on our knowledge.

I would like to come back to the 47 necessary field actions.We estimate the overall figure of affected vehicles - defined as those vehicles still in the market - to be about approximately 450,000 units.

• Heavy Duty Vehicles , approx. 25,000 units.
• Medium Duty Vehicles, approx. 120,000 units.
• Light Duty Vehicles, approx. 300,000 units.
• In addition, we expect about 5,000 to 8,000 busses to be affected.

Ladies and gentlemen,
My team and I are fully committed to addressing and implementing each necessary action for our customers.

The link to our customers are our dealers. I meet with them on a regular basis and have their fullest commitment in jointly overcoming our current challenge.
They will do whatever will be necessary for our customers.
Our dealers will offer special inspections to our customers.

I would like to announce that we will implement free-of-charge inspection, for all Fuso trucks and busses, starting on July 7th.
This is for the items equivalent to "Commercial 3 months inspection" or "Private 6 months inspection".
Both campaigns will be implemented as an "Inspection Campaign."

Obviously, the high number of field actions and the complexity of the matters means: This needs time.

Therefore we will implement the necessary field actions on a step-by-step basis. To manage such an immense task even a large company like Fuso needs support.

As you know, we are an integral part of DaimlerChrysler.

DaimlerChrysler is the world's largest commercial vehicles producer and the technological leader in its field. I have turned to our colleagues in Germany for additional technical support.

The first group of 10 colleagues from Mercedes Benz in Germany has already arrived and supported the analysis in the last few days.

In addition, there will be further personnel from Germany to strengthen our own manufacturing and service expertise and support our dealers.

Let me turn to the business impact.
It is too early to give you any estimate.
Financial figures can only be provided after we know for sure exactly how many vehicles are affected and exactly which measures we will implement.

The overall business impact will be – without doubt – significant.

But we are a company with a strong basis.

Based on our own know-how and reinforced by the full technical support and expertise of our partner DaimlerChrysler, I am confident that we will manage this challenge.

There will always be recalls in the automotive industry.
And we will make sure that they will be implemented promptly.

But I am confident that we will prevent reoccurrence of special quality problems of Fuso in the future because we have initiated a whole array of measures:

• Disciplinary action against wrongdoings of the past.
• A Quality Advisory Committee.
• A Corporate Culture Reform Committee.
• The Reform of our Quality Management and Research & Development.
• Implementation of a Quality Gate philosophy in our product creation process.
• Personal changes in the key positions such as Quality Administration and Engineering.
• And a new culture of communication, with a strong emphasis on open internal and external communication.