UPDATE: Toyota President Mulls Visiting U.S. In Early March

(Adds comments on call for subpoena for Toyota president, other background, Toyota working on improving disclosure)

 
   By Yoshio Takahashi 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO) President Akio Toyoda is considering postponing his visit to the U.S. until early March in order to avoid a heavy snowstorm, but the chief executive is still likely to be hit by a blanket of questions as he faces growing calls to appear at a congressional hearing to explain the auto maker's large-scale recall.

A spokeswoman for the world's largest car maker said that bad weather has prompted Toyoda push back his trip to the U.S. The top executive was initially scheduled to leave last Wednesday.

Faced with growing discontent over a global recall of more than 8.5 million vehicles, Toyoda said earlier this week that he plans to go the U.S. to visit Toyota dealers and suppliers to explain the reasoning behind the company's major recall of its Prius and other hybrid models. But news of his trip spread quickly, prompting an influential lawmaker to request his presence at a more formal venue.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the senior Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating Toyota, said Thursday that he would "fully support" a subpoena of Toyoda and any others related to the auto maker's recall.

The backing of the subpoena follows Issa's call earlier this week for Toyoda to appear at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 24.

However, the Toyota spokeswoman said that the president has no plans to speak at the hearing at present, as the head of the auto maker's North American operations, Yoshimi Inaba, will appear.

On Tuesday, Toyoda also told reporters that he has no plan to attend hearings when in the U.S.

A U.S. House panel planned the first hearing for the Toyota recall issue last Wednesday.

However, the hearing was postponed due to a weather forecast predicting heavy snowfall to hit the Washington region as early as Tuesday afternoon. The panel is trying to reschedule the hearing for later this month.

In another meeting to examine the large-scale recall of Toyota vehicles, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said Tuesday it will hold a hearing regarding the Japanese car maker's safety issues on March 2.

A Toyota spokesman said that the car maker is currently considering steps to improve its disclosure of information about quality matters. He declined to provide details as the company is mapping out concrete steps now.

As a major way to notify customers, the car maker currently provides recall information on its web site.

But a person familiar with the matter said Friday that Toyota may start to disclose more information including some of minor quality fixes that don't require a formal recall.

-By Yoshio Takahashi, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2770; Yoshio.Takahashi@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2010 03:55 ET (08:55 GMT)

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