Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. has appointed Vice President Michio Hori as chairman, effective Tuesday, the firm said.

Hori, 61, succeeded Takashi Usami, who has quit to take the blame for a series of wheel-hub accidents involving its vehicles and a delay in issuing recalls.

Hori has been serving in the post of vice president since Mitsubishi Fuso was established in January 2003 after Mitsubishi Motors Corp. spun off its truck and bus operations.

At present, Wilfried Porth, from DaimlerChrysler AG, Mitsubishi Fuso's top shareholder, serves as Mitsubishi Fuso's president.

Mitsubishi Fuso wants to establish an in-house balance associated with the nationalities of its top managers by naming a Japanese national as its chairman in the wake of Usami's resignation last Friday, the sources said.

On March 24, Mitsubishi Fuso filed a recall with the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, informing it of its decision to recall 112,000 trucks, buses and cranes due to defective wheel hubs that caused the accidents, including a fatal one in January 2002.

At a news conference March 24, Porth apologized for a two-year delay in submitting the recall notice to the government and for causing public anxiety.

There have been 52 accidents in which wheels detached from Mitsubishi trucks while in motion, including one that caused death and injury and another that caused injury, Mitsubishi Fuso said.

In the January 2002 Yokohama case, a wheel that came off a Mitsubishi truck killed a woman and injured her two sons.

Mitsubishi Fuso plans to hold a news conference Wednesday, when it will announce measures to forestall similar incidents as well as in-house disciplinary measures, the sources added.