The air bag recall has grown to an unprecedented scale under strong pressure from US regulators.

The recall was initially limited to hot and humid areas, but in November 2014 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered Takata to expand the recall across the United States. In May 2016, it was expanded further to cover a total of 69 million air bags.

The US authority expressed its resolve to "protect all Americans from air bag inflators that may become unsafe."

However, only 38 percent of the Takata air bags subject to the US recall were recovered by the end of May this year, while another fatal air bag rupture occurred in the country last September.

Ongoing talks on a system to facilitate the recall apparently lack a sense of urgency, as the top NHTSA post remains vacant following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

For their part, Honda Motor Co. and other Japanese automakers that have used Takata air bags are expected to have their work cut out to restore consumer trust in their products, analysts said.

The total number of Takata air bags subject to the global recall is expected to exceed 100 million, including about 18.82 million units recalled in Japan. In the Japanese recall, 73.3 percent of the faulty air bags have been replaced.

Globally, some 51 million defective Takata air bags were mounted on vehicles of Honda, the largest client of the major auto parts maker.

Honda has so far shouldered at least 556 billion yen in recall costs, while Toyota Motor Corp. has covered 570 billion yen.

After Takata's filing for bankruptcy protection under the civil rehabilitation law on Monday, Honda and Nissan Motor Co. said in separate statements that it will likely be difficult to collect from Takata most of the money that they have provisionally paid in the air bag recall.

US auto parts maker Key Safety Systems Inc., set to be Takata's turnaround sponsor, is demanding that Takata continue to do business with its existing client automakers, according to a lawyer for Takata.

Although the automakers have agreed to financially support Takata for now, partly for the sake of a stable supply of replacement parts, they are likely to turn their back on the disgraced company once the recall problem is over, industry sources said. (Jiji Press)