Japan Transport Minister Seiji Maehara stopped by Washington D.C. late last week to discuss several issues with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, including Toyota and the future of high speed rail here in the States. The Detroit News reports that Maehara admitted the Japanese automaker made some mistakes in handling its recall issues, adding "Toyota has on its own recognized that it had been slow." Maehara and LaHood further agreed that the Toyota situation shouldn't disrupt the relationship between the U.S. and Japan, as the two agreed to have more open dialog in the future.

The dueling transportation secretaries also spent time discussing high speed rail. Japan has had high speed trains for decades, while the U.S. is looking to finally get in on bullet trains this decade. LaHood is scheduled to travel to Japan next, where he will have further dialog with Japanese officials. When transportation officials from the U.S. visited Japan in December, they were reportedly given a chilly reception, but LaHood told the DetNews that he expects to receive a "red carpet" reception.



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