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Slow regulatory action on Toyota's unintended acceleration problems reveals even deeper systemic issues with safety ratings for the Japanese corporation

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Slow regulatory action on Toyota's unintended acceleration problems reveals even deeper systemic issues with safety ratings for the Japanese corporation

Until recently, Toyota's safety problems have been largely attributed to Toyota's own, corporate blindness, a hubristic example of Japanese company's self-image as an organization that could do no wrong. However, recent revelations indicate that there may be more insidious forces at work. According to the February 10, 2010 article by Elaine Cullen from the Current Political Scene blog entitled, "Toyota ethics problems indication of larger Japanese government ethics problems," the "disturbing lack of response of NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) officials to complaints about Toyota safety defects" may be rooted in a 'revolving door' policy between the NHTSA and Toyota (Cullen 2010). Toyota appeared to routinely hire former agency officials in a covert method of influencing NHTSA decisions. This claim is substantiated by the fact that until the complaints grew so numerous they could no longer be suppressed, "former NHTSA regulators hired by Toyota Motors helped to end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration" (Cullen 2010).

In terms of the 'ground rules' that were ignored, Toyota was in clear violation of federal law. Federal government employees must wait for two years before working for companies related to their government jobs. However, the influence of Toyota goes even deeper than the corruption of one or two NHTSA officials. Toyota has a powerful lobbying organization on Capital Hill. More than forty percent of the congressional members serving on the three committees investigating Toyota have been the recipient of Toyota campaign donations over the past decade. Interestingly, while American car companies have been condemned for their excessive influence upon legislators from the Detroit area, there has been little publicity devoted to Toyota's influence upon Congress as a whole. In fact, it is often easier for foreign companies to make contributions to political campaigns than it is for domestic companies. Foreign individuals on behalf of foreign companies can easily contribute to Political Action Committees or PACS and thus conceal their influence. Toyota has been doing so for decades.

If the NHTSA officials deliberately ignored possible safety violations in Toyota vehicles, their effect upon the economy would be twofold: firstly, of course, is the problem of the obvious safety hazard this poses for drivers. Second, because Toyota was insulated from bad publicity regarding its brand, unlike American car manufactures, this gave Toyota an unfair competitive advantage and must be cited as one of the many reasons for the faltering of the American 'Big Three' in the marketplace. Toyota built its brand name on its superior quality, but clearly this 'branding' was false, now that the long-hidden truth has been revealed. Still, Toyota has been so effective in transmitting its message of quality, some consumers see the serious safety problems as only a small hiccup in Toyota's history -- not part of a larger problem at the company.