Toyota
in damage control mode after American exec arrested
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[June 19, 2015]
By Chang-Ran Kim and Joshua Hunt
TOKYO (Reuters) - 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.
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Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized 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
apologize."
Japanese media reports, citing police investigators, said 57
addictive Oxycodone pills were found in a small parcel labeled
"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.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jun/19/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png) 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.
Toyoda vowed that the automaker would maintain its policy of seeking
out talent regardless of gender or nationality and expressed regret
that the company had not provided enough support for an employee who
was not Japanese and had come to live in Japan.
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Oxycodone is a prescription drug in both the United States and
Japan. Bringing it into Japan requires prior approval from the
government and it must be carried by the individual, a health
ministry official said.
Hiroaki Okamoto, a criminal defense lawyer at the Nakamura
International Criminal Defense Office in Tokyo who is not involved
in Hamp's case, said the large number of pills meant that, if
indicted, she could face years in prison, followed by deportation.
The maximum sentence for smuggling drugs with the intent to sell is
life in prison, he said. Even if indicted for smuggling for personal
use, it would be tough to get a suspended sentence because of the
large number of pills, he said.
(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edmund
Klamann)
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