The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has unveiled measures to fundamentally revise the existing vehicle-recall system.
The revisions would compel manufacturers to report periodically on potentially serious defects and create independent panels of experts to decide on the need for recalls.
The ministry announced the move Thursday, following its failure to detect repeated false reporting by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. over wheel-hub defects.
The new measures would oblige car manufacturers to report periodically on defects that could compromise the safety of their vehicles.
The ministry will also set up two independent panels of academics and other experts to monitor defects fully from a technical perspective, the officials said.
There is a limit to the degree of technical monitoring that ministry staff can handle, they said.
Of the two panels, one would conduct independent investigations into serious defects, aside from those conducted by manufacturers.
The other would decide whether a recall was necessary, based on the findings of these investigations.
The ministry also plans to enhance information-sharing with police, the Japan Automobile Federation and other bodies.
It proposed ways to improve defect-monitoring methods for car manufacturers.
The ministry plans to draw up more specific proposals for the recall system by summer, ministry officials said.
Earlier Thursday, Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested the former vice president and six other former executives of Mitsubishi Motors in connection with a fatal truck accident in Yokohama in January 2002. The executives were arrested on suspicion of failing to carry out adequate safety measures and covering up defects.
Also on Thursday, the ministry submitted a written order to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association to properly implement the recall system, the officials said.
On Friday, the ministry said it would exclude Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. from the public bidding process for 18 months to November 2005.