Takata, Honda Under Government Spotlight At Home

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Takata and Honda are both coming under the gun at home, on order of Japan Transport Minister Akihiro Ota.

Bloomberg reports the transport minister ordered the formation of a special task force to oversee the 2.54 million vehicles under recall in Japan over the Takata airbags onboard. The ministry also announced that it would probe Honda’s reporting errors in the United States, where 1,729 injury and/or death claims weren’t reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration between 2003 and 2014.

Regarding the errors, Honda President Takanobu Ito reiterated that his company misunderstood the the responsibility it was supposed to take in reporting said claims to the agency, that management made several mistakes in filing procedure.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Wmba Wmba on Nov 26, 2014

    I always rememember Baruth's take on Honda after working under contract to their IT department (if I remember correctly). When Toyota was in Senate hearings regarding unintended acceleration, Akio Toyoda caved in to the pressure. In similar Canadian hearings, they were as arrogant as could be. The representative from Japan slouched in his chair, scowled, grimaced and gave the general impression that he couldn't care less about Canadian law. Toyota showed no sign of remorse, kept saying that engineers back in Japan had decided that no reporting was necessary, thereby breaking the law. Honda seems to have just woken up to the reality that their non-reporting of airbag problems in the US is miring them in deep doo doo. Up till now, they apparently reserved the right to decide what was reportable, just like Toyota in Canada. Arrogance really to wilfully decide what to report when the law is clear. Then you have all the Japanese suppliers price-fixing in blatant disregard of the law, and refusing to show up in court. Perhaps someone who knows the Japanese character better than I can comment on their attitude of superiority which leads to these situations vis a vis US law. It seems like a big weakness. However, Hyundai is even worse being quite ruthless even with their own investors.

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    • Strafer Strafer on Nov 27, 2014

      @Noble713 Am I on Stormfront? I think your generalization could apply to any people. For example, your bullet point 2 could be changed to: "2. Having been here for 3 years, I’d say it’s a combination of the American superiority complex, a culture that values “Me First!” and openly displaying shameful behaviors, a low level of emotional maturity/arrested development, and a general disdain for foreigners."

  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Nov 26, 2014

    Japanese consider all foreigners including Americans as an inferior. For the same reason why Germans are so arrogant. Germany and Japan are two manufacturing and exporting superpowers - other countries simply cannot compete with them. They are much better organized and have better discipline and therefore superior in that aspect to everyone else. So I can imagine that they consider US law as annoyance from stupid Americans which they have to tolerate to sell products. But Japanese are nice people otherwise and very customer oriented and friendly if you are not their enemy.

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