Toyota Motor Corp moved into damage control mode on Friday after its new communications chief Julie Hamp, an American and its first senior woman executive, was arrested on suspicion of illegally bringing pain killers into Japan just two months after her appointment. Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologised for the incident at a news conference and reiterated the company's belief that Hamp had no intent of breaking the law.
"To me, executives and staff who are my direct reports are like my children," he said. "It's the responsibility of a parent to protect his children and, if a child causes problems, it's also a parent's responsibility to apologise." Japanese media reports, citing police investigators, said 57 addictive Oxycodone pills were found in a small parcel labelled "necklaces" that was sent from the United States and addressed to Hamp in Japan. The pills were in packets or buried at the bottom of the parcel, which also contained toy pendants and necklaces, they said.
Hamp, a former General Motors Co and PepsiCo Inc executive, told police she did not think she had imported an illegal substance, a spokesman for Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department said. A police official declined to comment on the latest media reports about the parcel. Hamp was appointed managing officer in April as part of a drive to diversify Toyota's male-dominated, mostly Japanese executive line-up. She joined Toyota's North American unit in 2012 and this month relocated to Tokyo, where she was to be based. She had been staying in a hotel, a Toyota spokeswoman said.
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