Thursday, June 18, 2015

Toyota Managing Officer and communications exec Julie Hamp arrested in Japan for importing Oxycodone in an alleged narcotics law violation

Julie.

Opioid drug Oxycodone.

Julie is Toyota's Chief Communications Officer. I would not be surprised if she suffers from chronic headaches.

She was arrested in Japan, according to Reuters. 
More details are provided by a report from Automotive News.
One more interesting detail is provided in Market Watch.


"Police allege Hamp imported 57 pills from the United States through Narita airport on June 8, according to Kyodo News. She has denied the allegations, Kyodo said.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that the pills allegedly arrived via international mail and were intercepted by customs. It said authorities arrested her earlier today at a Tokyo hotel."
"The tablets were placed at the bottom of the package..."

I feel some empathy for Julie. This reminds me of once, some year around 1977, when I was arrested by the Japanese police in the countryside north of Tokyo for doing nothing more than forgetting to bring along my ID card. On that day, my close school chum Numajiri-san, a sculptor at Tokyo U of Arts, had brought me to her family farmhouse for a visit, where I was dressed up in a lovely kimono. Then we went for a drive. As per Japanese custom when in kimono, I did not bring my over-the-shoulder handbag. We got stopped at a random police roadblock where the police were checking everyone. When it was discovered that I had no ID card, I was detained and held in the police station for hours until the Numajiri family successfully pleaded for my freedom. I was young and did not really care. But looking back on it, I remember how deadly serious the police could be when they wanted to be, and I would not like to be in Julie's shoes right now. 

On the other hand, maybe the experience might give Julie and her colleagues keener empathy for Koua Fong Lee, who was wrongly imprisoned for over two years due to Toyota's SUA cover-up, when his car accelerated and killed three people. Julie was not yet working for Toyota when Koua was in jail, but has certainly been Toyota's PR leader during the recent years of the company's ongoing effort that shifts blame for vehicle safety defects onto drivers. It is likely that more drivers besides Koua have been charged with crimes when the real crime was in the way their vehicles were designed without regard for true functional safety.

Julie, maybe you now understand how Koua and others have felt.

The opium poppy.


Question: Why does Julie Hamp need narcotic painkillers while she works as Toyota's PR chief?