Japanese authorities raided the office of multinational automotive manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors on Thursday after the carmaker admitted that it falsified its fuel economy data.

Mitsubishi revealed that its workers manipulated data to impress mileage rates on over 600,000 (157,000 of its own units and 468,000 for Nissan) vehicles.

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"This has critically damaged consumers' trust and it won't be tolerated," Yoshihide Suga, a spokesperson from the top government, said. "It's an extremely serious issue."

Officials searched its plant in Okazaki on Thursday morning. The company was also asked to submit a full report of the falsified fuel-efficiency tests on Wednesday.

"We would like to reveal the extent of the inaccuracies as soon as possible," Suga said. "We will deal with the situation in a strict manner and would like to make sure of the safety of cars."

The false data were discovered after Nissan found inconsistencies on how vehicles were being tested. Mitsubishi then investigated separately and indeed found that its data were tampered with.

Meanwhile, the company said it would stop the production and sales of the affected models, namely, Mitsubishi eK Wagon and eK Space, and the Nissan Dayz and Dayz Roox.

Shares of the Tokyo-listed firm plummeted up to 16 percent on Wednesday morning even before reports confirming about the misconducts happened.

Although the automaker's top executives said it would take some time to determine the extent of the damage, Akira Kishimoto, an auto analyst from JPMorgan, said that the falsification could possibly cost nearly 3 billion yuan ($450 million), including payments to clients, costs for parts replacements and Nissan's compensation.

TagsMitsubishi, emission tests, volkswagen, Volkswagen emission scandal, automotive industry, Japan