Japan’s industry ministry has summoned Takata chairman and CEO Shigehisa Takada to explain what the company is doing to resolve a crisis over potentially deadly air bags, two informed sources have told the Reuters news agency.
A source said Takada, the third generation head of the Tokyo-based safety equipment supplier, had been expected to attend talks at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) with senior officials, including director-general Atsuo Kuroda, as early as Monday afternoon.
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Kuroda heads the ministry’s manufacturing industries bureau but Reuters noted it was unclear what information the ministry was seeking.
Another Takata executive was due to appear before a second US congressional hearing later on Wednesday (3 December) to explain how the supplier’s air bags become potentially lethal. A first hearing took place on 21 November.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Takada acknowledged the company “can and must do more”, Reuters said.
Takata spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa told the news agency he was not immediately able to confirm whether Takada had been summoned by the ministry. A METI spokesman had no immediate comment.
Officials from METI’s automotive division have had multiple meetings with representatives from Takata in recent weeks as the air bag crisis has escalated, informed sources told Reuters.
Other sources who have met Takada recently have told Reuters Takata had said he had identified and fixed the main cause of the air bag defect which, he told business contacts, was mainly a flawed manufacturing process.
If that cause is limited to certain timeframes and specific production plants, as Takada told those people, the current crisis could be resolved once Takata conducts the necessary recalls as thoroughly and quickly as possible, one source told Reuters.
