Tokyo

TAKATA Corp's air bag recalls may increase to 118.5 million worldwide after last week's order by US regulators compounded the biggest safety crisis in the history of the automobile industry, according to estimates by Jefferies Group LLC.

Japan's transport ministry and carmakers in other markets will probably follow the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in calling back all air bag inflators that lack a moisture-absorbing desiccant, Takaki Nakanishi, a Tokyo-based analyst for Jefferies, wrote in a May 5 report. The expansion may result in 55 million more air bags being recalled and 665.4 billion yen (S$8.4 billion) in additional cost, according to Nakanishi, who was ranked as the top Japan car analyst by Institutional Investor from 2003 to 2009 and again in 2013.