JAPANESE air conditioning manufacturer Daikin Industries has admitted that its profits had been inflated by a total of £23 million (3.3 billion yen) through inappropriate accounting over the 10 years through March 2008.
In the middle of March 2009, an officer responsible for the After Sales Service division in Japan received an anonymous letter indicating that for many years the After Sales Service division had been engaged in inappropriate accounting.

In response to this letter, the company began an internal investigation and found the After Sales Service Division of the company and Daikin Facilities, Co., Ltd. ('DFC'), a subsidiary supervised by the After Sales Service division, had been engaging in inappropriate accounting over the period of fiscal years from 1999 to 2008.

In its statement, Daikin Industries said 'The company is continuing its investigation into the detailed methods used in the inappropriate accounting, but it has also discovered that some evidence such as invoices and receipt slips that are used within the company for accounting procedures have been falsely filled in and prepared by several employees of the company's service division'.

Daikin Industries is now investigating the breakdown of such amount for each fiscal year. Daikin said it would make appropriate amendments to its past financial results when it announces its earnings for the year to March 2009, in mid-May 2009.