Toyota apologises over executive’s arrest for illegal drug importation

Toyota Motor Corp President, Akio Toyoda, on Friday apologised for the arrest of its first female senior executive for allegedly illegally importing drugs into Japan.
“We apologise for causing a flutter to the public. We believe that the investigation will reveal that Ms Julie Hamp did not have an intention to violate the law,’’ Toyoda told a news conference in Tokyo.
Hamp, Toyota’s global chief communications officer in Japan, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of sending Oxycodone painkiller pills through the mail to Japan.
Toyoda said the arrest would not change the carmaker’s policy of appointing the right person to the right job regardless of sex or nationality, in a bid to globalise the company.
A news report, citing investigative sources, said the customs label on the package containing the pills sent to Hamp from an airport in the U.S. state of Kentucky declared the contents to be a necklace.
“Fifty-seven Oxycodone pills were placed in the package in several bundles, with some contained in an accessory case and a paper bag.
“Hamp has told Japanese police she did not intend to import narcotics and demanded to see a lawyer, the report said.
She served as the group’s vice president at Toyota Motor, North America before taking the current position on April 1.