The current Act requires the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to make a performance test agent conduct investigations of manufacturing defects whether a model of vehicle is safe after sales of that model of vehicle have been made, and if he/she decides that the results of tests indicate that the vehicles are unsafe, he/she shall take measures to recall them. Furthermore, the Deliberation Council on the Safety and Defects of Motor Vehicles is set up to deliberate on the matters related to this.
However, the investigation of manufacturing of vehicles defects and the recall measures are critical to consumer safety and, thus, need to be handled very carefully. Nevertheless, there are cases where the fairness and credibility of the Deliberation Council on the Safety and Defects of Motor Vehicles is suspected. For example, the Council, which deliberates and decides which vehicles exhibit and/or have been reported to have defects and are subject to recall measures, is making decisions whose fairness in the deliberation process is suspected, there are indications that it is impossible to know who is responsible because the process is not transparently disclosed, and there is a controversy over the eligibility requirements of the members of the Council.
Also, performance test agents should collect defect information through the submissions of vehicle manufacturers, press reports, vehicle owners’ reports, and overseas recall cases and operate a vehicle defect information system (a vehicle recall center) that analyzes and examines this information to recognize the defects of automobiles in advance, but it is pointed out that the management of its operation is not working properly because there is no legal basis for the operation of the system.
Accordingly, this amendment is to establish legal grounds for the operation and commissioning of the vehicle defect information system and, at the same time, to promote fairness and efficiency throughout the process of investigating vehicle manufacturing defects and determining the recall by making it mandatory to prepare the minutes of the Deliberation Council on the Safety and Defects of Motor Vehicles and open them to the public in principle and by reinforcing disqualifications for members of the Council (Article 33-4, Article 47-8 (6) and (7), Article 47-10 (2), subparagraphs 7 through 9, and Article 77 (12) newly inserted).

Disqualifications for members of the Deliberation Council on the Safety and Defects of Motor Vehicles (Article 47-10)