In the wake of faulty accelerator pedals that have tarnished the reputation of the once golden Toyota, the company’s president President Akio Toyoda apologized Friday and promised better quality control. More:

“‘I sincerely apologize for causing concern to many of our customers over recalls for multiple models in multiple regions,’ Toyoda, grandson of Toyota’s founder, told a hastily called news conference in Nagoya late Friday that was aired at Toyota’s Tokyo office by satellite feed.

Toyoda sought to reassure customers, saying, ‘Believe me, Toyota cars are safe.’

Regarding the latest dark cloud on the carmaker’s horizon, the brake problems involving its popular Prius hybrid models, Toyoda said the automaker was still deciding on a remedy and remained vague on whether a recall would be immediately forthcoming. Millions of other Toyota models, however, have been subject to recent recalls in connection with sudden accelerations, accelerator pedal faults and floor mat issues.

Toyoda only said he has ordered a ‘prompt response’ to the Prius woes.”

Well, it looks like that Prius recall will come this upcoming week, reports the The Yomiuri Shimbun. Toyota is already facing lawsuits over the faulty brakes in the hybrids.

Interesting take on Toyoda’s apology by the L.A. Times, noting that his body language said a lot:

“The president’s bow, when it came at last, was a dip that lasted only a second.

Coming two weeks after his company began recalling cars by the millions, the short, formal dip, head cast down, suggested regret for causing so much trouble for his customers.

But Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder of the Japanese automaker now battling to save its global image from the stain of safety problems, did not deliver the deeper, longer bow that some expected. Bend too low, hold the pose too long, and Toyoda might have found himself in sticky legal trouble, his ritual of apology construed as a sign that the company accepted its culpability in the mess over all those defects.

In a culture where saying sorry comes easily but can mean many things, the Japanese bow, a stiff, from-the- waist dip with arms held at the side, is often the better indicator of the sincerity of one’s contrition.

The nation’s ritual of corporate apology has ties to feudal times when samurai warriors committed seppuku, disemboweling themselves in atonement.”

(Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)