Washington:
Ever since the Transportation Department stepped up pressure on Toyota over its recalls several months ago, two delicate questions have hung over regulators: Is the Obama administration trying to help the Detroit carmakers it bailed out last year by attacking Toyota? And, will those attacks lead to new trade tensions with Japan?
Those issues, which have been debated on talk radio and in blogs and opinion columns, were front and center last week at House hearings into sudden acceleration of Toyota cars.
They are bound to come up again on Tuesday, when the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation conducts its inquiry into Toyota's problems.
Last year, the Treasury Department provided $65 billion to assist reorganizations at General Motors and Chrysler, which both spent brief stints in bankruptcy.
The Treasury holds 61 percent of General Motors and 8 percent of Chrysler and appointed directors to each company's board. Edward E. Whitacre Jr. was recruited by the Treasury to become GM's chairman, and was subsequently made chief executive by the company.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a longtime advocate for Detroit's carmakers, placed the subject squarely in front of Toyota last Tuesday during a series of rapid-fire questions to James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A
Asked whether he believed the stakes held by the Treasury Department in GM and Chrysler were influencing the Transportation Department's actions, Lentz replied in a quiet voice: "I don't believe that. The government is acting fairly."
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, was far more forceful in his denial at hearings last Wednesday that favoritism was at play.
Asked by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, whether he felt Toyota was being held to the same safety standards as GM, LaHood replied in a terse way, "Absolutely." Asked whether he had heard from representatives of the United Automobile Workers union about the recalls, LaHood replied, "Absolutely not."
In Japan, however, conspiracy theories abound that Toyota is being unfairly punished by an administration eager to bolster the fortunes of the Detroit carmakers.
In an analysis last week, the conservative Weekly Asahi magazine contended that President Barack Obama also wanted to use the outcry against Toyota to lift his approval ratings.
"It's doubly convenient for the Obama administration to hammer Toyota excessively," the magazine said. "By picking on Toyota, Obama wants to reverse his falling popularity."
White House officials have said they want to see Toyota address the recalls, which Robert Gibbs, Obama's press spokesman, called "a dangerous situation." But the question of political fairness resounds in part because of a presentation by Toyota's Washington staff that was provided to the House committee last week as part of 50,000 pages of documents related to the recalls.
The presentation, prepared in July 2009 as part of an orientation program for Yoshimi Inaba, the chief executive of Toyota's U.S. operations, discussed the Washington political climate. It included the phrase, "changing political environment - massive government support for Detroit automakers." Asked about it at Wednesday's hearing, Inaba replied that the phrase did not reflect the philosophy of Toyota's staff.
While insisting that they were being treated fairly by the American government, Lentz and Inaba did not hesitate to lay some blame at Japan's feet during their testimony, or at least Toyota's operations there.
Several times, each executive explained that the final authority for decisions on Toyota's recalls and other decisions rested with company executives back home.
Further, Inaba, who has been invited back for the Senate hearing, seemed to criticize his superiors in Japan when he said they did not share information about sudden acceleration issues in Europe, which occurred before the problem surfaced in the United States.
Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., expressed concerned at the hearing on Wednesday that American customers might be considered second to those in Japan.
"Are you giving American market the same level of attention as Japan or Europe?" he asked Akio Toyoda, the company's president. "We can't afford to have a lag of a year or two years of finding out something that is defective in an automobile."
In response, Toyoda replied through an interpreter, "We provide the same service with the same degree of care to customers all over the world."
Any criticism of Japan, whether from Toyota executives or lawmakers, feeds into fears by some in Japan, as well as in the United States, that the attacks are a resurgence of Japan bashing.
Those concerns may have been intensified on Wednesday, when Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, pointed to a slide on a large television screen in the hearing room that depicted the U.S. trade deficit data superimposed over the white and red Japanese flag. . Kaptur repeated a longtime criticism that Japan's import restrictions make it nearly impossible for Detroit carmakers and foreign automakers in general to compete there. "Imagine the second-largest marketplace having less than 3 percent from someplace else," Kaptur said.
By contrast, more than half the cars sold in the United States, where Toyota is the second-biggest automaker, are from foreign nameplates, she said.
But several representatives voiced fears that trade tensions could result. "I hope we don't see this as an excuse to beat up on foreign manufacturers and exacerbate our relationship with our neighbors," Kanjorski said.
Added Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.: "We find ourselves in a dilemma. We want to be very careful. We have one of our main trading partners, Japan."
On the other hand, Cummings said, Toyota owners in the United States had spent many thousands of dollars over the years on vehicles from a company they thought they could trust. That justified the government's inquiry, he said. "They have a right to be safe."
Those issues, which have been debated on talk radio and in blogs and opinion columns, were front and center last week at House hearings into sudden acceleration of Toyota cars.
They are bound to come up again on Tuesday, when the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation conducts its inquiry into Toyota's problems.
Last year, the Treasury Department provided $65 billion to assist reorganizations at General Motors and Chrysler, which both spent brief stints in bankruptcy.
The Treasury holds 61 percent of General Motors and 8 percent of Chrysler and appointed directors to each company's board. Edward E. Whitacre Jr. was recruited by the Treasury to become GM's chairman, and was subsequently made chief executive by the company.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a longtime advocate for Detroit's carmakers, placed the subject squarely in front of Toyota last Tuesday during a series of rapid-fire questions to James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A
Asked whether he believed the stakes held by the Treasury Department in GM and Chrysler were influencing the Transportation Department's actions, Lentz replied in a quiet voice: "I don't believe that. The government is acting fairly."
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, was far more forceful in his denial at hearings last Wednesday that favoritism was at play.
Asked by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, whether he felt Toyota was being held to the same safety standards as GM, LaHood replied in a terse way, "Absolutely." Asked whether he had heard from representatives of the United Automobile Workers union about the recalls, LaHood replied, "Absolutely not."
In Japan, however, conspiracy theories abound that Toyota is being unfairly punished by an administration eager to bolster the fortunes of the Detroit carmakers.
In an analysis last week, the conservative Weekly Asahi magazine contended that President Barack Obama also wanted to use the outcry against Toyota to lift his approval ratings.
"It's doubly convenient for the Obama administration to hammer Toyota excessively," the magazine said. "By picking on Toyota, Obama wants to reverse his falling popularity."
White House officials have said they want to see Toyota address the recalls, which Robert Gibbs, Obama's press spokesman, called "a dangerous situation." But the question of political fairness resounds in part because of a presentation by Toyota's Washington staff that was provided to the House committee last week as part of 50,000 pages of documents related to the recalls.
The presentation, prepared in July 2009 as part of an orientation program for Yoshimi Inaba, the chief executive of Toyota's U.S. operations, discussed the Washington political climate. It included the phrase, "changing political environment - massive government support for Detroit automakers." Asked about it at Wednesday's hearing, Inaba replied that the phrase did not reflect the philosophy of Toyota's staff.
While insisting that they were being treated fairly by the American government, Lentz and Inaba did not hesitate to lay some blame at Japan's feet during their testimony, or at least Toyota's operations there.
Several times, each executive explained that the final authority for decisions on Toyota's recalls and other decisions rested with company executives back home.
Further, Inaba, who has been invited back for the Senate hearing, seemed to criticize his superiors in Japan when he said they did not share information about sudden acceleration issues in Europe, which occurred before the problem surfaced in the United States.
Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., expressed concerned at the hearing on Wednesday that American customers might be considered second to those in Japan.
"Are you giving American market the same level of attention as Japan or Europe?" he asked Akio Toyoda, the company's president. "We can't afford to have a lag of a year or two years of finding out something that is defective in an automobile."
In response, Toyoda replied through an interpreter, "We provide the same service with the same degree of care to customers all over the world."
Any criticism of Japan, whether from Toyota executives or lawmakers, feeds into fears by some in Japan, as well as in the United States, that the attacks are a resurgence of Japan bashing.
Those concerns may have been intensified on Wednesday, when Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, pointed to a slide on a large television screen in the hearing room that depicted the U.S. trade deficit data superimposed over the white and red Japanese flag. . Kaptur repeated a longtime criticism that Japan's import restrictions make it nearly impossible for Detroit carmakers and foreign automakers in general to compete there. "Imagine the second-largest marketplace having less than 3 percent from someplace else," Kaptur said.
By contrast, more than half the cars sold in the United States, where Toyota is the second-biggest automaker, are from foreign nameplates, she said.
But several representatives voiced fears that trade tensions could result. "I hope we don't see this as an excuse to beat up on foreign manufacturers and exacerbate our relationship with our neighbors," Kanjorski said.
Added Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.: "We find ourselves in a dilemma. We want to be very careful. We have one of our main trading partners, Japan."
On the other hand, Cummings said, Toyota owners in the United States had spent many thousands of dollars over the years on vehicles from a company they thought they could trust. That justified the government's inquiry, he said. "They have a right to be safe."
