Records show Honda chastised Takata as airbag crisis unfolded

Southfield, Michigan

FOUR months before US regulators started their investigation, Honda Motor executives sat down with Shigehisa Takada, the head of Takata Corp, to scold him for the way the manufacturer reacted to the crisis over its potentially deadly airbags, according to minutes of the meeting.

It seemed to be a rough session for Mr Takada, the grandson of Takata's founder. One Honda engineer asked if his company grasped the gravity of the situation, chiding the chief executive officer by saying he'd been too slow to act, the minutes show. The president of Honda's North American manufacturing operations, Hidenobu Iwata, told Mr Takada he was "constantly worrying" because the airbag maker didn't appear to have control of the situation.