In 2025, the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) was carrying out due diligence on firms which bid for a used vehicles pre-shipment inspection contract when its agents visited Japan.
At Daikoku Futo in Yokohama and 77 Shihonagicho in Nagoya, the agents were viewing what happens in inspection sites owned and operated by Quality Inspection Services Japan (QISJ), which was among the bidders.
TBS agents found that at those two sites, QISJ did not have equipment such as battery and alternator testers and airbag scanning tools.
Post qualification reports revealed lack of mandatory equipment such as an airbag scan tool, battery tester and alternator tester at QISJ Yokohama Dikokufuto and QISJ Nagoya Inspection Site-77 Shihonagicho Inspection Centres.
On those grounds, alongside alleged discrepancies in books of accounts for the 2022/23 financial year, the TBS opted to award the vehicle pre-shipment inspection contract to EAA Company Ltd, which has become one of QISJ’s most bitter rivals globally.
The discrepancies in the books of accounts made it difficult to determine the value of QISJ’s total assets and liabilities and were also a foul of Tanzania’s procurement procedures.
Over the last 10 years, thousands of vehicles imported from Japan by Kenyans have been given a clean bill of health at the same Daikoku Futo and 77 Shihonagicho sites, which Tanzanian authorities found lacked critical and mandatory inspection kits.
In that decade, QISJ has enjoyed a monopoly of the vehicle pre-shipment inspection space in Kenya, being the only firm contracted by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs for cars and spare parts imported from Japan, UAE, UK and South Africa.
The findings by Tanzanian authorities have now thrown into question the clearances issued by QISJ to vehicles inspected at Daikoku Futo and 77 Shihonagicho, particularly in relation to batteries, alternators and airbags.
KEBS did not respond to our queries on whether its officers visit sites owned or operated by contractors such as QISJ to confirm whether they conform to set inspection norms.
The standards agency also did not respond to our queries on whether it conducted due diligence on QISJ when awarding the Japanese firm exclusive inspection contracts between 2014 and 2022.
A Kebs official said the agency opted not to issue any comment on account of ongoing court cases involving the inspection tenders.
In its 2022 bidding documents, QISJ listed 29 inspection centres in Japan that it either owns or operates. The firm also stated that it has 18 inspection centres in the UK, five in South Africa and one in UAE.
Six months before a procurement process that birthed QISJ’s current contract with Kebs, a law firm had written to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), seeking to have the Japanese firm blacklisted for non-disclosure, which created a conflict of interest.
Karanja & Ndwiga Advocates alleged that QISJ was both player and referee, as it had a sister firm dealing in export of vehicles from Japan to Kenya. The law firm was referring to QISJ’s relationship with Jan’s Trading Company Ltd, one of the biggest exporters of used Japanese cars and spare parts to Kenya. At the time, the complaint stated, QISJ shared the same contacts, postal and physical address in Japan, and some senior officials. Particularly, Hatano Kiyoaki was listed as a director in both QISJ and Jan’s Trading Company Ltd.
The same claims had been made by Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Centre (JEVIC) in 2014 when contesting a Kebs decision to award QISJ the vehicle pre-shipment inspection contract.
JEVIC made the claims when challenging QISJ’s award of the same contract at the PPRA. The PPRA, however, dismissed JEVIC’s appeal.
The tender rows got to the floor of the National Assembly, which in 2016 delegated investigations to its Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which also heard the same allegations.
Despite not addressing the shared addresses and contact details, the PAC ruled that there was no evidence of any conflict of interest on QISJ’s part. Between 2012 and 2015, Kebs had contracted three firms for the service, with JEVIC and Auto Terminal Japan also inspecting vehicles being imported to Kenya.
After 2015, Kebs opted to contract only one firm, which has been and remains QISJ.
Then Kebs managing director Charles Ongwae told the Nation when the PPRA battle was still proceeding in 2015 that in the past, some inspection firms had allowed vehicles exceeding radiation levels into Kenya.
Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Charles Ongwae.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The comments were targeted at JEVIC, whose contract with Kebs was terminated four months before its lapse for allegedly allowing some vehicles with high radiation readings into Kenya, and also for allegedly granting overage cars into the country.
A few months later, the Japan Harbour Transportation Association (JHTA) blacklisted QISJ after finding that the firm’s testing of used vehicles being exported did not meet set standards.
The JHTA conducted site inspections before the decision to blacklist. By this time, QISJ had started what would become its over 10-year dominance in that space.
Kebs did not mete out the same treatment that JEVIC received less than a year earlier, despite its auditors visiting Japan at the time QISJ had been blacklisted by JHTA. Officials from the Trade ministry and Auditor-General also visited Japan, UAE and UK to verify QISJ’s capacity to deliver on the contract.
The monopoly has seen questions raised about QISJ’s pricing. Between January, 2018 and June, 2020, QISJ inspected 229,715 vehicles, with an expected charge of $109 (Sh14,082) per vehicle. But the firm charged $122 (Sh15,762) per vehicle, which pushed the cost of inspecting the 229,715 vehicles up by Sh801 million.
QISJ’s biggest competitors in the sub-Saharan market, EAA Company Ltd and Auto Terminal Japan, have on their part been handed sanctions for alleged breaches of Kenya’s procurement laws.
Japanese tycoons Prosper Sugai, Toyohiko Hashino and Mamoru Fujie now headline a list of eight individuals and two firms being tried for procurement fraud in Kenya’s courts.
Mr Sugai and Mr Hashino are the top two officers at EAA Company Ltd, a Japanese inspection firm with contracts in multiple countries for the inspection of used vehicles.
Mr Fujie is a director of AutoTerminal Japan Ltd, which also offers similar services in other countries.
EAA Company Ltd and Auto Terminal Japan have been accused of using forged documents in the three procurement processes between 2014 and 2022 to bid for the KEBS tender.
EAA Company is serving a second three-year ban. Auto Terminal Japan successfully sued in 2025 to stop a similar fate.
EAA Company Ltd has had government contracts for inspection of used vehicles in Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius and the Bahamas.
Auto Terminal Japan, on its part, has had similar contracts in Uganda, Guyana, Pakistan, Jamaica and Zambia.
