Anxious Toyota workers in the automaker's hometown rallied behind their president after he faced a grilling from U.S. lawmakers over the company's safety problems, but many fear the crisis is far from over.
Thousands of miles away in Washington, Toyota Motor Corp's chief Akio Toyoda appeared before a sometimes hostile congressional panel, where he apologized for any accidents Toyota drivers have experienced.
The panel appearance of Toyoda, the 53-year-old grandson of the company's founder, was a dramatic turn in a safety crisis that broke a month ago with a series of recalls over unintended acceleration and braking problems that now includes more than 8.5 million vehicles globally.
Hours before Toyoda appeared before the congressional panel, some residents spent a nervous evening at a bar in Toyota City, located in Japan's industrial heartland in central Japan.
"We are not just drinking. We are drinking while being worried about what's happening. We cannot help drinking because we are worried," said Hidemi Miyaji, who as a sales manager at Aicello Chemical works closely with Toyota.
Many of the city's 420,000-plus residents rely directly or indirectly on Toyota for jobs. It has nearly 26,000 people working at seven Toyota plants and more than 1,400 industrial plants, more than 30 percent of which are auto-related.
"There were some tough questions, but I think he answered them earnestly," Shingo Mori said of Toyoda's panel appearance. Mori works at Toyota's Kamigo Logistics Center, which handles parts for export to the United States.
"He took responsibility for what happened. Now we all need to work together to meet our customers' needs and try to regain the trust that we've lost," said Mori, who has worked at Toyota factories in several states in the United States.
Full story
