Toyota sought to discredit witnesses, Washington post reports

Toyota officials were looking to attack the credibility of witnesses who testified before Congress about sudden acceleration problems in the automaker’s vehicles, according to a report in Washington Post.

The Post says it obtained documents that show Toyota sought to create a public relations campaign based in part on polling that questioned the integrity of two witnesses. Such polls are used by businesses and politicians to test the weaknesses of their opponents.

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of sudden acceleration problems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked 52 deaths to Toyota acceleration problems.

The Post identified the witnesses as Sean Kane, a Massachusetts safety consultant, and David Gilbert, an auto technology professor. Each has criticized Toyota’s handling of the problem.

Government investigators have asked Toyota officials whether the company had undertaken a campaign to debunk or discredit the witnesses, according to the report.

In response, Toyota told the Post it never produced advertisements based on the polling, and that Gilbert and Kane had made “assertions” that “created unwarranted consumer concern.”

The survey was done by Joel Benenson, who is also President Barack Obama’s chief pollster, the report said.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the automaker to turn over all related documents.

Keyword : America, Woshington, Toyota, Survey, The House Energy

5,000 rally in Kagoshima to oppose U.S relocation plan

About 5,000 people gathered in the city of Kagoshima to protest Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s proposal to relocate some functions of a major U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Three mayors from the island, including Isen town mayor Akira Okubo, participated in the gathering held at a park in central Kagoshima a day after the local leaders rejected the relocation proposal on Friday in a meeting with the prime minister in Tokyo.

‘‘I conveyed (Tokunoshima) residents’ firm sentiment against (the proposal),’’ Okubo said at the rally, which was organized by members of the Kagoshima prefectural assembly, excluding assembly groups of the Democratic Party of Japan.

On Friday, Hatoyama, who heads the ruling DPJ, asked the mayors to accommodate some functions of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station, but the local leaders’ response was that they would never accept any U.S. military facility or drills.

Hatoyama, who has set a self-imposed deadline of May 31 to settle the base issue, is also seeking a plan to build a pile-supported platform off the coast of the Marines’ Camp Schwab to relocate other Futenma functions within Okinawa Prefecture.

At the rally on Saturday, Kagoshima Gov Yuichiro Ito expressed support for the mayors from Tokunoshima and said, ‘‘It may be a long way, but I will oppose the plan in cooperation with the three mayors.’‘

Norihisa Hamada, 23, a Kagoshima city resident who grew up on Tokunoshima until graduating from high school, said, ‘‘I am worried about the future of the island, which is rich in nature, and I want residents in the prefecture to stand by (the island).’’

Keyword : City, Marine, Camp, Okinawa, Tokunoshima

PM suggests moving Futenma outside Okinawa was not pladge

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama suggested Thursday that he was only referring to a challenge, not a pledge, when he said during last year’s election campaign that his Democratic Party of Japan would try to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station ‘‘at least outside of Okinawa Prefecture’’ if it assumed power.

Meanwhile, Mizuho Fukushima, who heads the DPJ’s coalition partner the Social Democratic Party, which has been calling for the base to be transferred outside of Japan, suggested that Hatoyama does not need to resolve the relocation issue by his self-imposed deadline of May 31.

‘‘Since I said that and formed the government, I have acted, up to now, to make efforts’’ to realize the relocation of the Futenma facility outside of Okinawa, Hatoyama told reporters on Thursday morning.

In an attempt to clarify that seeking the relocation of the base outside of Okinawa was not a DPJ campaign promise, the prime minister said that the party had pledged to thoroughly review the planned realignment of U.S. forces in Japan to reduce the burden on the people of Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the country.

During a visit to the main island of Okinawa on Tuesday, Hatoyama said it is not feasible to relocate all of the functions of the base outside of the island prefecture, angering local people who believed Hatoyama had promised to seek its relocation elsewhere.

SDP chief Fukushima took a cautious view on the May 31 deadline for settling the dispute, indicating that further discussions are needed within the government.

During a TV program on Thursday, Fukushima, who also serves as consumer affairs minister, said the government ‘‘just has to come up by the end of May with an idea or direction that (the relocation) would not take place within the prefecture.’‘

On the possibility that her party could leave the ruling coalition over the matter, Fukushima only said, ‘‘The important thing right now is not whether the SDP will leave the coalition, but that it is time for the party to work hard not to let (the government) come up with a final conclusion that the base should be relocated within the prefecture.’‘

Fukushima suggested in December that the SDP would leave the ruling coalition if the government decided to relocate the base within Okinawa.

But the tiny party’s Diet affairs chief from Okinawa Prefecture, Teruya Kantoku, told reporters Thursday, ‘‘I’ve made a serious decision and am always prepared. I will not let anyone force any more sacrifices on Okinawa.’‘

Meanwhile, Kenji Yamaoka, chairman of the DPJ’s Diet Affairs Committee, said he does not think the Futenma issue will have a direct impact on the lives of the people, sparking criticism from an assemblywoman in Itoman, Okinawa.

Yamaoka also said in a meeting at the DPJ’s headquarters in Tokyo that people in other cities do not seem as interested in the Futenma issue as they are in child benefits—one of the party’s policies.

‘‘People seem to think the Futenma (issue) is something occurring in a different world but the child benefit issue is related to their lives,’’ Yamaoka said.

But the assemblywoman was quick to attack the senior DPJ lawmaker, saying, ‘‘For us, the course of the issue could destroy our lives. It sounds disrespectful to the people (of Okinawa).’‘

Yamaoka later offered an apology and retracted the comments.

Keyword : Futenma Air Station, Okinawa, TV Program, DPJ's