A worker death at Subaru’s Yajima plant in Japan, pictured here during a media tour in December, spurred the company to temporarily suspend production at three plants.
TOKYO — Subaru has restarted production in Japan after a rare on-the-job death of a worker caused more than a weeklong suspension of three plants and lost output of up to 20,000 vehicles.
The Japanese automaker resumed operations Monday at its main global production base.
Work was restarted, the company said, after taking measures to prevent a repeat of the Feb. 13 accident, in which a 60-year-old veteran was crushed to death by a 25-ton mold.
Subaru suspended production for eight days at two assembly plants and one powertrain plant north of Tokyo — factories that manufacture key models for the U.S. Affected nameplates included the Forester and Crosstrek crossovers for export as well as the BRZ sporty coupe.
A Subaru spokesperson declined to give details about what steps the company took in the interim to review the accident and reinforce safety protocols. But suspending operations was the result of a management decision and not a union protest, the spokesperson said.
"We can't give any specifics about what measures we have taken," the spokesperson said. "But we have spent much time to make sure that an incident like this will not happen again and put in place measures to ensure safety and peace of mind among workers."
Production was also suspended for the eight days out of respect for the deceased worker's family and coworkers, the company said. Subaru declined to say how many vehicles were lost.
But based on Subaru's domestic production cadence for December, of roughly 2,581 vehicles a day, the Japanese carmaker may have lost some 20,000 vehicles over the eight days.
The shutdown affected three plants in the Gunma region, Subaru's main production hub.
The Yajima assembly plant, where the accident occurred, makes the Impreza compact and the Outback, Crosstrek and Forester crossovers. The nearby Main plant makes the BRZ, Impreza and Crosstrek as well as the WRX sports car and the Levorg, a Japan-market wagon.
Also affected was the local Oizumi engine and transmission plant.
Subaru's domestic output climbed 8.1 percent to 608,327 vehicles in calendar year 2023, for the second straight year of increases. Production in Japan accounted for about 63 percent of the export-dependent company's global output. Exports from Japan increased 13 percent to 509,199 units last year, also the second consecutive year of higher production.
Subaru has been racing to recoup lost volume since the pandemic and global semiconductor shortage slowdown. Its Japanese factories delivered record production of 727,741 vehicles in 2016. But domestic output fell 7.9 percent to 570,416 in 2020 and dropped to 475,141 in 2021.
Naoto Okamura contributed to this report
