TOKYO - Where is Akio Toyoda, boss of the world's No. 1 automaker?

One of the biggest questions in Toyota's muddled handling of its massive recalls and escalating public relations crisis has finally been answered.

Toyoda, the automaker's 53-year-old president and CEO, will Friday hold his first news conference since Toyota announced a recall for faulty gas pedals on Jan. 21 affecting 4.5 million vehicles.

His only public comment so far was a brief, impromptu interview last week with Japanese broadcaster NHK on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"I am very sorry that we are making our customers feel concerned," he told NHK.

His silence otherwise grew louder by the day, along with concerns his absence was exacerbating Toyota's woes which now include brake problems with its Prius hybrid - the crown jewel in the automaker's vehicle lineup.

Once dubbed the "prince" by local media, a new nickname for Toyoda had been catching on: No-show Akio. Toyota said its CEO will address quality control issues at the press conference Friday evening at the company's Nagoya headquarters.

Sherman Abe, a business professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, wonders why it took so long.

"Toyota seems to be a typical Japanese company wanting to get all the facts before reacting," said Abe, professor at Hitotsubashi's Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. "But when you have a crisis, you can't handle it successfully that way. The longer you wait, the more damage it does to your credibility."

Toyota, swamped with reporter inquiries about its missing CEO, reiterated earlier Friday that the appropriate executives had been chosen to address the media so far.

The Nagoya-based company tapped Jim Lentz, head of North American sales, to apologize to U.S. customers and detail its plans for a fix. Shinichi Sasaki, the man in charge of quality control, briefed reporters in Nagoya, central Japan, on Tuesday. Senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi defended the automaker's quality standards at another press conference in Tokyo Thursday.

Toyoda's formal appointment last June came with high hopes that the charismatic, internationally-minded "prince" could restore Toyota's profits and mojo after a battering by the global economic downturn. At the time, he pledged to take the company back to basics and refocus on quality.

A board member since 2000, Toyoda has overseen China operations, Japan sales and Internet businesses. He also served as vice-president at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a Fremont, California-based joint venture with GM, giving him key experience in the U.S.

He received an MBA from Babson College in Massachusetts after graduating from Keio University in Tokyo.

Toyoda may have forgotten one critical lesson from business school.

Johnson&Johnson's response to a series of Tylenol poisonings in 1982 is considered the gold standard in corporate crisis management. The company almost immediately issued warnings, suspended Tylenol advertising and issued a nationwide recall.

The case is now widely studied by business school students as an example of effective leadership.

"Presidents have to act on incomplete information and use judgment when they sense there is a crisis," said Abe of Hitotsubashi. "They can't hold back. I just wonder whether large Japanese companies are structured to enable them to handle uncertainty of that magnitude."

Some observers doubt whether the new CEO will survive the crisis.

Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said Toyota's problems call into question the merits of family management.

"Once the recall is completed and perhaps some grace period to save face, he will have to fall on his sword," he said.