Toyota Rebuked by Government on Recall Policy

In a rare public scolding of Japan’s biggest company, the Japanese government reprimanded Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday and called for improved recall practices amid a criminal investigation into a 2004 accident.

The Transportation Ministry ordered the automaker to report by Aug. 4 steps it was taking to better monitor reports of defects with its cars and to speed up communication within the company about possible problems, a ministry official said.

The ministry did not fine Toyota or find it guilty of breaking the law.

But public prosecutors, who are independent of the government, may still file charges against Toyota executives under investigation.

Toyota Executive Vice President Masatami Takimoto said the carmaker would do its best to beef up its practices as instructed by the ministry.

“We take the directives from the ministry very seriously,” he said.

The recall investigation -- coming at a time when Toyota recalls are ballooning -- has been a major embarrassment for Toyota because of its solid reputation for quality.

This month, police said they were sending papers to prosecutors on three Toyota executives as part of a criminal investigation of negligence at the company. Police say they suspect the three executives knew about the problems as far back as 1996 but took no action.

The defects being investigated, a suspected faulty steering part, may have caused an August 2004 head-on crash in southwestern Japan that injured five people, police say.

Toyota has denied any wrongdoing, saying the reported problems had not appeared serious enough to warrant a recall until October 2004, when Toyota recalled in Japan 330,000 Hilux Surf vehicles manufactured between December 1988 and May 1996.

The 2004 recall affected more than a million vehicles sold in 180 nations, including the United States, and some problems had been reported from abroad, according to Toyota.

None of the reports from abroad had caused accidents, the company said.

At a news conference Thursday, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe bowed deeply and apologized for the recall troubles that had stirred up worries among customers. He denied wrongdoing.

“I take this seriously and see it as a crisis,” Watanabe said.