A top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives called Wednesday for Toyota's president to testify before Congress later this month.

Darrell Issa serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating Toyota's massive recalls.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda has had to apologize repeatedly for the company's massive recalls. (Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press)

Issa said Toyota president Akio Toyoda should meet with lawmakers and testify before the panel on Feb. 24. Toyoda has said he plans to travel to the United States soon to meet with American workers and dealers.

"There certainly is widespread interest from Capitol Hill and the American people to hear directly from him," Issa said.

He said he would ask chairman Edolphus Towns, who leads the committee, to invite Toyoda to participate in the hearing. Issa said the hearing would give the committee an opportunity to "provide a forum for both Mr. Toyoda and lawmakers to have an open exchange in front of the American people."

Toyota turns down award

Issa's call came the same day as Toyota turned down an energy efficiency award from the Japanese government, saying it was not appropriate given recent massive recalls.

The award would have been for its hybrid Prius and came a day after the automaker announced it would recall about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles to fix brake problems.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. that braking was delayed in cold conditions and on bumpy roads.

"We declined to accept the award, because we thought it is not appropriate," said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco, citing the global recall of the gas-electric hybrid.

The Prius recalls brought the total number of vehicles Toyota has recalled since late last year to about 8.5 million, including for floor mats that can trap gas pedals and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position.

Japanese automakers turning cautious

On Tuesday, Honda expanded its global recall for faulty airbags, a move one analyst suggests shows automakers are turning cautious as consumer scrutiny intensifies with Toyota's safety lapses.

Honda said it was adding more than 378,000 cars, bringing its 15-month-old recall to nearly one million vehicles.

Kurt Sanger, an analyst at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo, said Japanese car executives want to avoid the kind of criticism levelled at Toyota that it was too slow to move on its problems and to come clean with consumers.

'No one wants to be Akio Toyoda.'—Kurt Sanger, Deutsche Securities analyst

"No one wants to be Akio Toyoda," said Sanger, a reference to the CEO's repeated apologies for his company's woes.

"You're seeing the down side of not doing it," Sanger said of Toyota's recent reluctance to recall vehicles. Automakers are "obviously going to be motivated to be more aggressive on these things."

With files from The Associated Press