Japan production shutdowns, slowdowns to go well into April

TOKYO -- Japan's automotive slowdown continued with little sign of any automaker returning to full production soon amid forecasts that most Toyota plants will stay offline for weeks.

A Toyota Motor Corp. supplier said his company was informed by a Toyota purchasing executive that the bulk of the Toyota and Lexus assembly plants will remain suspended at least until April 14. That followed a Reuters report saying they would be down until April 11.

Toyota could not confirm a timeline for restarting operations. The only production underway this week is for the Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h and Lexus CT 200h hybrids.

That output was scheduled to take a break today and resume on Thursday. The rest of Toyota's 18 domestic assembly plants remain closed indefinitely.


Here's a look at other carmakers in Japan:

Mazda and Nissan: Continue limited vehicle production with parts in inventory.
Honda: All assembly plants closed through April 3.
Subaru: Partial minicar output to start Thursday; full-sized cars offline indefinitely.
Suzuki: Kosai small car plant to open Thursday; main U.S. export plant suspended.
Mitsubishi: Operating all three Japan plants at limited output Thursday and Friday.