TUESDAY last week, the biggest automotive story to hit Japan was the announcement of his intention to resign by the chief of Bigmotor, one of Japan's largest used car dealers, allegedly because several of its employees were found to have intentionally damaged customers' vehicles in order to charge excessive repair fees and make fraudulent insurance claims.

The scandal disclosed in an investigative report showed at least 1,275 questionable repairs that involved using screwdrivers and sandpaper to scratch car bodies and using golf balls inside socks to hit the vehicles and produce damage to the body.