By TIMOTHY AEPPEL
                    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

                    Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., moving to give its top managers better
                    oversight of its troubled tire-making activities, is consolidating the
                    operations into four business units.

                                         The restructuring is part of Firestone's effort to
                                         restore its reputation and market share in the
                                         wake of the recall of 6.5 million tires, allegedly
                                         linked to more than 165 fatalities in the U.S. and
                                         overseas. The tire maker's executives have
                    blamed its slow response to the problem on the fragmented structure
                    of the company, which made it difficult for data about tire failures to be
                    quickly identified and acted upon.

                    Two of the most-sensitive operations -- consumer tire and
                    manufacturing and technology -- will be headed by Japanese executives.
                    Those businesses, while they didn't formally exist until Wednesday,
                    were nonetheless the focus of the recall crisis. Firestone's parent,
                    Bridgestone Corp. of Japan, has also sent its director of tire
                    development and general manager of tire-material development to
                    Firestone, underscoring a pledge by Bridgestone to bring the U.S.
                    operations up to Japanese standards.

                    Firestone said it is merging 16 separate business divisions into four
                    operating units: commercial tires; consumer tires; international tire
                    operations; and manufacturing-and-technology operations. The move
                    reverses the decentralization implemented in the early 1990s. Five
                    nontire businesses, such as industrial products and fibers and textiles,
                    will remain separate divisions.

                    John Lampe, Firestone's newly appointed chief executive, said in a
                    statement that the company's emphasis now would be on better
                    information-sharing "and more direct accountability at all levels inside
                    the company." All four new units will report directly to Mr. Lampe.

                    Shu Ishibashi, a 46-year-old rising star at Firestone who has a strong
                    reputation in sales, will head the consumer-tire business. The new unit
                    combines a business that sold tires in the replacement market and
                    another that dealt strictly with sales to car makers for use on new
                    vehicles. The new international tire-operations unit will be headed by
                    Mark Emkes, 47, previously president of Firestone's Brazil operation,
                    while Chuck Ramsey, 51, was put in charge of the commercial-tire
                    group.

                    Isao Togashi, 58, who was named vice-chairman of Firestone at the
                    time of Mr. Lampe's promotion, will head the new manufacturing and
                    technology operations unit under the new structure.

                    Mr. Togashi is expected to lead a drive aimed at upgrading Firestone's
                    manufacturing and research base. As part of the management changes
                    announced Wednesday, Firestone said Shigehisa Sano would move to
                    the U.S. from Japan to work under Mr. Togashi as president of product
                    development. Mr. Sano, 54, is formerly director of tire development for
                    Bridgestone and is on the board of the parent company. Also reporting
                    to Mr. Togashi will be Itsuo Miyake, 53, former general manager of
                    Bridgestone's tire-material development in Japan, and newly named
                    president of Bridgestone/Firestone research.

                    Write to Timothy Aeppel at timothy.aeppel@wsj.com