TOKYO — Toyota Motor on Thursday said it reinstated Julie Hamp, as a senior media adviser, seven years after she resigned from the company following her arrest by Tokyo police for carrying drugs.
In her role, Hamp will be responsible for supporting Toyota North America’s public relations operations.
Hamp joined Toyota’s U.S. subsidiary in 2012 after working in public relations at General Motors and other companies, and was appointed Toyota’s first female executive in April 2015.
She resigned just two months later after being arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of importing oxycodone, pills containing narcotics. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office later dropped the charges, a decision that was believed to have taken into consideration Hamp’s resignation. She had said then that the pills, widely known by their brand name of OxyContin, were pain relief for her knee.