(This version of the story corrects company name and Reuters instrument code to Subaru Corp in third paragraph in story published on Nov. 24) 
 
 By Sam Nussey and Yuka Obayashi 
 
 TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Materials Corp (5711.T) on Friday said it was racing to determine the impact of falsified data of products shipped to over 200 customers at home and abroad, in the latest quality assurance and compliance scandal involving a Japanese manufacturer. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials on Thursday said three subsidiaries manipulated inspection data of parts used in aircraft, automobiles and industrial machinery. Its shares dropped as much as 11 percent the following day, hitting their lowest price since August. 
 
 The admission follows a spate of compliance failings at Japanese manufacturers including Kobe Steel Ltd (5406.T), Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) and Subaru Corp (7270.T) which threatens to shatter the country’s reputation as a maker of high-quality products. 
 
 At a briefing on Friday, Mitsubishi Materials faced questions over its corporate management after admitting data falsification at Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd [MTCBL.UL] was discovered as far back as February, with the subsidiary shipping products with possibly falsified data even after wrongdoing was detected. 
 
 “Making an announcement without pinning down the problem would have caused further disruption and trouble,” Mitsubishi Cable President Hiroaki Murata told reporters. 
 
 The data falsification scandal is the second in as many years to hit a member of the Mitsubishi group, Japan’s biggest conglomerate, after Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) admitted it had falsified mileage readings on some of its vehicles. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials said customers in Japan, the United States, China and Taiwan may have received affected products. It said an internal investigation will determine the causes of wrongdoing and scope of the matter. 
 
 “My responsibility is to bring countermeasures across the whole company based on the results of the investigation,” said Mitsubishi Materials President Akira Takeuchi, in response to questions about whether he would resign over the matter. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials Corp. President Akira Takeuchi attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai 
 
 Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko earlier on Friday called the latest scandal “a betrayal of trust in Japanese manufacturing,” pointing to the amount of time Mitsubishi Materials took to reveal the wrongdoing. 
 
 The company said Mitsubishi Cable distorted data on as much as 20 percent of its rubber sealing products, used in aircraft and cars, for two-and-a-half years from April 2015. Of 229 potentially affected customers, 40 have been informed. 
 
 Another subsidiary, Mitsubishi Shindoh Co Ltd, manipulated data for metal products, used in cars and electronics, as far back as October 2016. Around half of 29 potentially affected customers have been informed. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials, said it stopped shipping affected materials from the two units in October. In both cases the company said it had not found any safety or legal problems. 
 
 A third subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aluminum Co Ltd, also shipped products which did not meet customers’ specifications. The safety of products has been confirmed with the 16 affected customers, the parent said. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials said it did not know whether there would be any impact on its financial outlook. 
 
 The company has reported the matter to Japan’s trade, transport and defense ministries, and on Friday said some products supplied to the defense ministry did not meet ministry requirements. 
 
 Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said his ministry is working to establish any impact of the wrongdoing but does not currently plan to stop using any equipment. Affected products were used in such equipment as aircraft engines. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials does not directly supply parts to Airbus SE (AIR.PA), which has not yet identified any suppliers receiving products from the company, an Airbus spokesman said. 
 
 Other manufacturers such as Boeing Co (BA.N), Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T) and Nissan said they were looking into the issue, company spokespeople confirmed. 
 
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 Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it does not directly procure any affected parts for domestic production, and is still confirming whether its suppliers do. It said it is also still confirming whether it directly or indirectly procures affected parts for overseas production. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials’ disclosure comes after Kobe Steel, Japan’s third-biggest steelmaker, admitted in October that workers had tampered with product specifications, forcing companies around the world to check the safety of their products. ||||| TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government urged steelmaker Kobe Steel on Wednesday to clarify the extent of manipulation of inspection data on steel, aluminum and other metals used in a wide range of products, reportedly including rockets, aircraft and cars, in the latest quality scandal to rock Japanese manufacturing. 
 
 Kobe Steel, Japan's third-largest steel maker, has announced that between Sept. 1, 2016 and Aug. 31 of this year it sold aluminum and copper materials using falsified data on such things as the products' strength. 
 
 Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami told reporters the government was seeking more information about the problem and trying to determine its possible impact on product safety. He criticized the apparently widespread falsification of data as "inappropriate." 
 
 About 200 of Kobe Steel's customers, including some makers of defense equipment, were affected, Nogami said. He would not identify the companies by name. Kobe Steel has also not announced which customers were affected, but Japanese media reports have said they included Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a major aircraft maker and defense contractor, and several automakers. 
 
 Kobe Steel said in a release that the materials included aluminum flat-rolled products, aluminum extrusions, copper strips, copper tubes and aluminum castings and forgings. 
 
 It was unclear if the total of 40,900 tons of products involved included shipments to other countries. 
 
 "Data in inspection certificates had been improperly rewritten etc., and the products were shipped as having met the specifications concerned," the company said, describing the actions as "improper conduct." 
 
 Kobe Steel said the problem was discovered during internal inspections and "emergency quality audits." Its share price has taken a beating, falling 17.8 percent Wednesday in Tokyo trading. 
 
 Product quality scandals have surfaced in Japan with increasing frequency in recent years. In one of the largest, auto parts maker Takata Corp. has paid $1 billion in penalties for concealing an air bag defect blamed for at least 19 deaths worldwide. Major automakers are also engaged in massive recalls and facing criticism for allegedly continuing to use the defective air bags despite knowing of the problem. 
 
 Last year, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. acknowledged it had systematically falsified mileage data on some of its vehicles. That company's reputation was hammered earlier by a massive, systematic and decades-long cover-up of defects that surfaced in the early 2000s. 
 
 In another major case, materials and chemicals maker Asahi Kasei Corp. found data had been manipulated in 360 projects out of 3,052, casting doubts on the strength of construction pilings. 
 
 A report on its investigation into the problem cited a slew of abuses, including outright swapping and falsification of data. 
 
 Kobe Steel said it was contacting its customers and working to verify the safety of the products it supplied. 
 
 "Verification and inspection to date have not recognized specific problems casting doubts on the safety of the nonconforming products," it said. 
 
 The company said it has set up a committee headed by its president to investigate quality issues and hired an outside law firm to conduct a probe into the misconduct. ||||| YOKOHAMA, Japan—When the audit team from Nissan Motor Co. headquarters showed up, factory foremen told the trainees to don disguises—part of a multidecade coverup by plant workers of their workarounds to meet management demands. 
 
 Badges were handed out to make it seem like trainees were fully qualified inspectors to fool internal auditors and inspectors from the ministry, according to an internal report released Friday by Nissan. It seeks to outline the causes of a vehicle inspection scandal at Japan’s second-largest car maker...
– Last year, Mitsubishi confessed it had fudged fuel tests for the past 25 years. Now a new admission adds to Japan's list of corporate controversies, not just from Mitsubishi, but also from other major manufacturers. CNNMoney reports Mitsubishi Materials admitted in a statement Thursday at least two of its subsidiaries—Mitsubishi Cable Industries and Mitsubishi Shindoh—finagled data for cars, aircraft, and industrial machinery to meet client specs. Reuters notes a third subsidiary, Mitsubishi Aluminum Co., was also included. And Mitsubishi Cable, which faked data for about 270 million rubber sealant units sold to more than 220 clients, may have continued to falsify info even after it had been uncovered. The parent company says it hasn't found any legal or safety issues in regard to the first two subsidiaries mentioned; it's unclear if the same applies to Mitsubishi Aluminum. The country's economy and trade minister calls the development "a betrayal of trust in Japanese manufacturing." The Wall Street Journal reports Mitsubishi Cable found out in February that factory workers had messed with the data, but it kept shipping products until the end of October as it investigated. Mitsubushi Materials says affected parts were mostly distributed in Japan, but some customers were located in China, and others may have been in the US. Other recent manufacturer scandals in Japan include Kobe Steel getting busted for manipulating inspection data on metals, as well as Nissan and Subaru taking heat for conducting improper vehicle inspections. All of this has led to what the Journal calls real "soul-searching" in Japan about how corporations are overseen by the government. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi shares fell by as much as 11% Friday, per the BBC.