Toyota president Akio Toyoda, under fire for his handling of massive safety recalls, was to leave yesterday for the US to testify in Congress, where he expects a harsh grilling, a local paper said.
The head of the embattled Japanese automaker has bowed to calls to appear before Congress following an invitation by Representative Edolphus Towns to testify on Wednesday.
Toyoda, expected to come under attack by US lawmakers, was planning to prepare for the testimony with Yoshimi Inaba, head of Toyota’s North American operation, the Mainichi daily said, citing unnamed sources.
The company could not confirm the report because “the president’s schedule remains confidential until the congressional hearing,” Toyota spokeswoman Mieko Iwasaki said.
Toyota is recalling more than 8 million cars worldwide for defects linked to more than 30 deaths in the US that have sparked a host of US lawsuits which could cost the company billions of dollars in damages.
Toyoda, the usually publicity-shy grandson of the company’s founder, was initially reluctant to speak before the congressional committee but relented following pressure at home and abroad.
Japan’s Transport Minister Seiji Maehara on Friday accused Toyoda of being undecisive on whether to face the US Congress, saying it was “regrettable that there were flip-flops.”
US Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican at the forefront of the US Toyota safety probe, welcomed Toyoda’s decision as “a right thing.”
“This problem in the US and around the world is important enough for the chairman of the entire company to make it a focus of where and how he is going to say changes are going to happen for Toyota,” he told Japan’s Nippon TV.
The key congressional committee has also subpoenaed Dimitrios Biller, a top US lawyer for the Japanese carmaker from 2003 to 2007, asking for all documents he has relating to Toyota’s “handling of alleged motor vehicle defects and related litigation.”
Biller says company documents show the beleaguered firm was hiding evidence of safety defects from consumers and regulators.
The leading daily Yomiuri said Toyoda had to act carefully in the US, where mid-term elections are coming up this year.
“With autumn’s mid-term election approaching, there has been a sharp rise in protectionism expressed among members of Congress,” the newspaper said in its editorial yesterday. “If Toyota fails to properly act under these circumstances, it could deal a serious blow to the trust in Japanese products as a whole.”
Some Toyota executives have expressed worries that the company chief is in the firing line, the liberal daily Asahi said.
“No matter what he says to explain, he will be crucified for sure,” said an unnamed company official, quoted by the Asahi. The iconic company, whose global expansion pushed it past General Motors in 2008 as the world’s largest automaker, is facing a litany of complaints ranging from unintended acceleration to brake failure in its Prius hybrid cars.
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