Former Toyota Executive Released From Custody In Drug Case

Julie Hamp had recently been appointed head of public relations for Toyota Motor Corp.

Kyodo/Reuters/Landov

Julie Hamp, the former Toyota executive arrested for allegedly mailing oxycodone pills to herself in Japan, was released from custody on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Tokyo prosecutors thought they had enough evidence to charge Hamp but didn't because they deemed justice had already been served:

" 'She has already gone through a certain level of social punishment,' an official from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office said, adding that prosecutors took her resignation into consideration. Ms. Hamp didn't comment when she left the police station in a silver Toyota van, and the identity of her lawyer wasn't known. ...

"Ms. Hamp is now free to return to the U.S. without a formal criminal record."

As the Two-Way has previously reported, Japanese customs officials discovered 57 pills in a package that Hamp had allegedly mailed to herself from Kentucky, in violation of Japanese narcotics law:

"Oxycodone is legal in the U.S. with a prescription.

"The Asahi Shimbun writes: 'When customs officials at Narita Airport checked an international parcel addressed to Julie Hamp, a 55-year-old American, they found pills, placed in bags, at the bottom of the parcel, Tokyo police said.'

"Hamp, who was arrested on Thursday, has denied the charges. A spokesman for Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department said she told authorities that she did not think she had imported an illegal substance."

Hamp was Toyota Motor Corp.'s first senior female executive. She had recently been appointed head of public relations.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced in a press release that Shigeru Hayakawa, Senior Managing Officer and member of the Board of Directors, has been appointed to Chief Communications Officer, the position Hamp recently resigned from.