At least eight deaths - all in Honda cars - have been linked to the airbag inflator, which can deploy with too much force spraying metal shrapnel.
Globally, tens of millions of cars with Takata airbags have been recalled since 2008, most of them in the US.
Other brands that have issued recalls include Nissan, General Motors and BMW.
But Honda, the number three carmaker in Japan, has been hardest hit with 24.5 million cars recalled - more than half of the global total.
A Honda spokesman in Tokyo told AFP news agency on Thursday that the carmaker had found some airbag inflators had "uneven gas density, which we worry could do some harm".
"It is a preventive measure and unlike other normal recalls we are not waiting for the full results of the research," he said.
Honda is recalling about 1.63 million cars in Japan alone. The carmaker told the Reuters news agency that North America was not included in the latest recall.
