Suspicion grows over Toyota exec's motive for alleged illegal painkiller import

One week has passed since Julie Hamp, an American executive at Toyota Motor Corp., was arrested on suspicion of illegally bringing a controlled drug into Japan.

Because oxycodone tablets were placed in a box within a parcel as if they were intended to be hidden, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) suspects that Hamp imported the painkillers while knowing that it was illegal to do so. Meanwhile, investigative sources quoted Hamp as saying that she does not think that she imported narcotics. It has come to light that Hamp told investigators that she had asked her father to ship the tablets. Therefore, the investigation is focused on to what extent investigators can confirm that Hamp was actually aware that the painkillers were a narcotic.

Hamp was quoted as telling MPD investigators that she had imported the oxycodone tablets to alleviate knee pain. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a news conference, "I believe that it will be clarified that she had no intention of violating the law."

In the course of the investigation, however, unnatural points have emerged that conflict with the view that Hamp was not aware of the illegality of importing the painkillers.

After being appointed in April as Toyota's chief communications officer, Hamp returned to the United States. She then re-entered Japan this month. Under Japan's Narcotics Drug Control Act, it is possible for anyone to bring oxycodone into the country from overseas if they go through legitimate procedures and carry it themselves. But the tablets were shipped by international air parcel delivery service.

The customs label on the package sent to Hamp declared the contents to be a "necklace." A necklace and a pendant were in the package, but they were like toys. The 57 tablets found in the box were placed beneath a plastic sheet at the bottom of the box as well as in a plastic case and a paper bag. The pendant was in the plastic case with 13 tablets being placed beneath it, but cardboard was tucked between the pendant and the tablets. Such being the case, the MPD suspect that Hamp had the tablets concealed by pretending that the necklace and pendant were being sent.

But the addressee of the parcel is said to be Hamp herself, and no trace has been found to suggest that she tried to disguise the name of the addressee. There was no advance information that Hamp was using narcotics, and an inspection by the Tokyo Customs turned up the tablets from the parcel. The Tokyo Customs started to step up its inspections of drugs and related items in April because dangerous drugs and other items were added to the list of banned import goods in line with revisions to the Customs Act.