Addressing a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon, the Toyota President Akio Toyoda announced the worldwide recall of 437,000 hybrid vehicles – including 200,000 Prius cars sold in Japan and 8,500 cars in the UK – marred by complaints about some defect in the vehicles’ braking system.

The recall announcement, which comes amid the worst-ever recall crisis faced by the Japanese carmaker, will affect Prius hybrids manufactured between April 20, 2009 and January 27; plug-in Prius hybrids built between November 25, 2009 and February 5; Lexus HS250h hybrids built between June 10, 2009 and February 8; and SAI hybrids built between October 2, 2009 and February 8.

Ever since the complaints about unintended acceleration problem in the vehicles have surfaced, Toyota has been steadily losing its market foothold – so much so that it has lost nearly $31 billion in market value since January 21, when it initiated the recall of ‘defective’ vehicles.

With Toyota stating that the recall of the vehicles reiterates that customer safety is the company’s “foremost priority,” Toyoda had earlier said in a statement to the Washington Post that he was “deeply disappointed” for the company’s inability to maintain the high standards US customers expect from it.

Toyoda said: “As the president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our word and in our products.”