Japanese government officials on Wednesday urged Toyota Motor Corp. to regain the U.S. consumers' confidence, ahead of a key U.S. congressional hearing to be attended by the company's president Akio Toyoda.

"Toyota should take seriously the fact that it had quality defects and manage to restore the trust of the people in the United States," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, the top government spokesperson, at a news conference.

Hirano declined to comment on speculation that reaction to the safety issue in the United States may be partly politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima also urged Toyoda to respond at the upcoming hearing "with a frank and sincere stance so as to reassure anxious U.S. consumers and to recover their confidence."