yoshimi inaba

At About 5:50 p.m. | Akio Toyoda ended his testimony a few minutes ago, but not before Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, tore into his apologies for what she called “sudden death acceleration.”

“I am not satisfied with your testimony,” she said. “I do not feel it reflects sufficient remorse for those who have died, and I do not think you have accurately reflected the large number of complaints that have been filed for more than a decade.”

“Where is the remorse?”

Waving a copy of “The Toyota Way,” the seminal book about the company’s culture, Kaptur questioned how Toyota’s focus on quality squared with evidence the company had ignored thousands of sudden acceleration complaints for years. She brings up the death of a Flint woman in a crash believed to be caused by sudden acceleration.

“Do you know how many people died in Japan because of what your company did?” Kaptur asks.

Toyoda reiterated his sorrow.

“I feel deeply sorry for those people who lost their lives or were injured in traffic accidents, especially those in our cars, and I extend condolences to them from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

Toyota’s reaction time questioned

4:40 p.m. | Akio Toyoda delivered another apology to people hurt by Toyotas in sudden acceleration accidents. His lieutenant provided most of the other information revealed so far by the committee.

“I extend my condolences from the deepest part of my heart” to those hurt, Toyoda said.

But the apologies went only so far with lawmakers.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., pressed the Toyota executives on why they didn’t spot the problems sooner. Toyoda’s answer that the automaker had trouble reproducing many of the complaints of sudden acceleration.

“Your answer, which goes to we’ll see if this is duplicated, is in some ways very troublesome. Because that is such a serious problem, because once that is reported one time, you have a huge problem on your hands.”