Japanese govt puts pressure on air-bag supplier Takata

Tokyo

JAPAN has stepped up pressure on air-bag supplier Takata over safety problems that have been linked to at least five deaths outside the country.

In a break from Japanese regulators' standard practice in dealing with vehicle defects, the Transport Ministry said it had directly ordered Takata to carry out a thorough investigation and to provide the government with more information. The ministry normally deals directly with carmakers, not their suppliers.

Akihiro Ohta, the transportation minister, said the authorities were responding to the serious nature of the air-bag problem, in which some Takata-made devices explode violently when they deploy, sending metal …