Toyota is counting on a trusted veteran with ample US experience, Yoshimi Inaba, when the Japanese automaker's recall problems are scrutinized by Congress later this week. Inaba, 63, a sales expert, was hand-picked from semiretirement by Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda last year to head the North American operations and help steer Toyota through the company's biggest earnings slump in its 72-year history as global auto sales dived. Now he must explain a spate of safety problems – first with floor mats that could entangle the gas pedal, followed by a design flaw that could cause a depressed gas pedal to get stuck – covering more than 7 million vehicles worldwide. The quality woes have spread to the Prius, the world's top-selling hybrid car and a symbol of Toyota's technological prowess. There have been dozens of complaints in Japan and the US of a short delay before the brakes kick in. Inaba will appear before the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland. The name of the hearing: “Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public at Risk?” Inaba, who has a master's in business administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business, faces the enormous challenge of assuaging public alarm about what has gone wrong at the manufacturer. Toyota reiterated Monday that a fix on the 2010 Prius was coming soon, but declined to give details. Japanese media reported it will be a recall in Japan – higher in urgency than the euphemistic-sounding “safety campaign,” which is used to bring in cars for upgrades. The braking problem can be fixed with new software, which is already in Prius cars that went on sale since last month, according to Toyota. More than 100 complaints have been reported in the US over Prius braking, and four crashes and two minor injuries are suspected as related to the braking problems, according to the US government. Lingering doubts also remain that gas pedal defects may be electronic, not mechanical as Toyota has said. Experts say Inaba, who headed Toyota's U.S. sales unit from 1999 until 2003, will need to do a far better job fielding questions in English than did his boss Toyoda when the automaker's president held his first news conference since the gas pedal recall was announced on Jan. 21. “The real reckoning will come on Wednesday,” Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, said of the Congressional hearing, which was set up last month. “The question will be what kind of responsibility they take when they come under fire with Congress. The jury is still out. This is the kind of stuff that can bring a company down,” he said. Argenti advises Inaba to stay humble, own up to mistakes, show a convincing plan for a fix and woo customers with discounts and free maintenance service for some years. Toyota may require many years to put the recall problems behind it and rebuild its brand, he said. Inaba, who joined Toyota in 1968, started out in its sales unit and later worked for five years in Toyota's European division. He left in 2007 to run an international airport in Nagoya, near Toyota city. He was brought back in 2009 as president of Toyota Motor North America Inc. in one of Toyoda's first decisions as president. Toyota did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for interviews with Inaba.
