TOKYO: Tokyo’s outspoken governor has accused the US of using Toyota’s safety troubles to “bash” Japan because of jealousy toward the Japanese automotive industry’s fast rise. “I believe Americans in their mentality are feeling angry about Japan overtaking them so fast in automobiles, which they invented,” a
video footage released from the Tokyo city government showed Governor Shintaro Ishihara saying. “If this were problems of Ford or GM, this much fuss might not have occurred.”

Ishihara added the US was “sly.”

Toyota, which in 2008 dethroned General Motors as the world’s biggest carmaker, has pledged to fix 8.7 million vehicles worldwide, including its best-selling gas-electric Prius hybrid.

“Toyota produced the Prius with a new mechanism in the era of energy saving. There may be defects as it’s still a developing technology. But the defect is blown all out of proportion and is used to bash Japan,” Ishihara said.

Toyota faced new woes in North America last week with another recall—this time involving its Tacoma trucks—after US President Barack Obama warned carmakers not to drag their feet on beefing up vehicle safety.
AFP