testimony. he must somehow win over u.s. lawmakers, win over u.s. consumers and convince them that toyota does produce safe cars. so there is a lot of discussion that there s going to be a lot of political theater. well, the political theater is going to have an impact here in japan. we understand from people inside toyota they will be watching here, the company concerned but also the highest levels of fwochlt as well. and the man on the street frankly. they are concerned this may trickle down and affect the household as well. all right. are you able to hear me? did we get our connection fixed? doesn t look like it. we apologize for that. we were having to have some q & a with kyung lah. that s live television, folks. holding their feet to the flame. we ll have more in a moment on the cozy relationship between nhtsa and car companies. also we re checking safety records. how does toyota really stack up against other car makers. later, his wife nearly died
pounded peasant. that may be how akio toyoda feels after a day with congress. so how do his loyal subjects back home feel about the big bad wolf talking down toyoda s door? kyung lah joins us live from tokyo. from what i understand, those in japan are extremely concerned about the way mr. toyoda is going to be treated here in the u.s. reporter: sorry action we re having some trouble hearing you, so i m just going to pick it up from here. what we can tell you is that the stakes are enormous lehigh here in japan. this is being read according to one of the major newspapers here as a make-or-break moment not just for toyota the company, but for the made in japan brand. we ve heard government officials saying that this could affect the gdp. they ll monitor what the recall effect will have on the economy, the world s second largest economy, so there is a lot of pressure on him, a lot of expectations. there are a number of lawmakers as well saying that akio toyoda must perform today in his
be mr. japan. kyung lah live in tokyo. and not cutting toyota any slack. safety expert joan claybrook says it didn t take a crystal ball to see this coming. does uncle sam also bear some blame? deb feyerick with another symptom of broken government. after a near-death experience in this mangled prius, you ll meet a customer turned crusader. it s a big hour here and we re all over this story. the big star today on the hill, akio toyoda. we ve heard him talk about his company s mistakes during press conferences in japan, but this is a different playing field now. the u.s. congress, where talk is cheap and where tough talk gets you the headlines. cnn congressional correspondent brianna keilar on the hill now as we all await to hear what kind of questions will be asked and what kind of answers we re going to get. reporter: we re inside the hearing room for the house oversight committee. this is where this is going to take place.
reporter: a year later when nhtsa decided to investigate complaints of sudden acceleration in some toyota models, its officials sat across from their former colleague to discuss parameters. 20 days later, nhtsa issued a memo that would exclude certain reported incidents. reporter: are you suggesting that in fact toyota and a former nhtsa employee worked with the federal agency to basically narrow the scope of the investigation? that s how it appears to us. this is in 04. reporter: ben bailey s law firm is suing toyota over the alleged wrongful death of a michigan woman, whose 2005 toyota camry crashed after suddenly accelerating out of control. reporter: back in 2004 they were already talking about the throttle control system. right. reporter: so this isn t a new problem. no. reporter: that toyota is now investigating suddenly. right. reporter: they knew about it. yes. reporter: so why didn t nhtsa look into it? rather than review all possible causes of sudde
figuring out or revealing whether or not there are electronic issues involved with these accelerators because there have been a lot of crashes that have occurred with the accelerator slammed to the floor and no floor mat in the vehicle. joan, you ve talked to me a number of times way before this turned into what it is now, and you called it. you not only went after toyota and how they kept many things under the table, shall we say, but you re pretty upset with our government and nhtsa for not doing what it should have done a long time ago. that s correct. i believe that the agency was asleep at the wheel in this case or just didn t put any energy into it. it really wasn t didn t have a corporate mentality for pushing for enforcement against these corporations that have violated the law or have been withholding information about these safety defects. and i know the agency is very underfunded and very