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Nissan Motors, Japan's second largest car manufacturer has announced that it is set to recall 1.2 million new passenger cars it has sold in Japan in the past three years after it discovered that certain final vehicle inspections were not carried out by authorised technicians.

The announcement disclosed that the cars to be recalled are those that were sold for the local Japanese market between October 2014 and September 2017.

The recall is the second major misconduct incident involving a Japanese automaker in as many years, after Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) admitted in April 2016 it had falsified the fuel economy for some of its domestic market models.

"We must take the registration framework and procedures seriously, regardless of how busy we may be or how short-staffed we may be," CEO Hiroto Saikawa told reporters at a media conference.

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers."

Nissan also disclosed that these recalled cars would undergo re-inspections for final checks on issues including steering radius and braking and acceleration capabilities, at a cost of around 25 billion yen ($222 million).

The recall includes all 386,000 passenger vehicles sold by Nissan in Japan last year but excludes Nissan branded vehicles that were produced by Mitsubishi Motors.

"This could turn out to be a serious issue depending on whether the misconduct was intentional or a simple oversight," said Takeshi Miyao, managing director of consultancy Carnorama.

"At the very least it could have a big impact on Nissan's brand image, given that it prides itself for selling quality products."