Toyota senior exec. resigns

While the company declined to disclose more details amid an ongoing investigation, Akio Toyoda, the company’s president, said a day after Hamp’s arrest that Toyota should have probably helped her more in her move to Tokyo.

The American public relations chief of Toyota Motor resigned on Wednesday, the automaker said, offering her notice from a Japanese jail following her arrest almost two weeks ago on suspicion of illegally bringing a restricted painkiller into the country.

The company accepted the resignation “after considering the concerns and inconvenience that recent events have caused our stakeholders”, the company said in a statement on its website. The Associated Press adds: “Her appointment in April had been highlighted by Toyota as a step toward promoting diversity”. According to Japanese law, Hamp could be detained a total of 23 days prior to being formally charged.

“I am looking forward to joining the talented communications team at Toyota, a company known for high quality products, best-in-class manufacturing and innovation”, said Hamp at the time of her hiring.

Hamp is a graduate of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., where she holds a bachelor’s degree in communications. The tightly controlled prescription drug can be imported only with special permission, which the police say Hamp had not obtained. She resigned from that post in March 2012. However it can not be sent by mail. Hamp told authorities that she did not intend to break Japanese law.

Hiroaki Okamoto, a criminal defense lawyer at the Nakamura global Criminal Defense Office in Tokyo who is not involved in Hamp’s case, said the large number of pills meant that, if indicted, she could face years in prison, followed by deportation.

In another part of the statement released in both languages, Toyota said it remained “firmly committed to putting the right people in the right places, regardless of nationality, gender, age and other factors”. She joined the company in June 2012 from PepsiCo, where she was a senior vice president, and worked previously for General Motors.