Toyota Motor to restart vehicle plants in Japan from Monday

Rolling again: Japanese automaker Toyota Motor has said it would restart its vehicle plants in Japan on Monday.

Given the impact of the New Year's Day earthquake that struck the country's Noto Peninsula, the carmaker would decide separately about operations from January 15, it said.

Toyota said it would use parts in stock outside affected areas, as aftershocks are continuing from the magnitude 7.6 quake that ravaged Japan's western coast and many of its suppliers and their affiliates are in affected areas, as per a statement on Sunday.

On Friday, Toyota President Koji Sato had said the company was seeking to understand the supply chain situation. Its suppliers Aisin and Sumitomo Electric suffered damage from the temblor.

As of Friday, some 80 per cent of 200 companies with plants in the quake-hit areas had already resumed production or would start them again soon, Industry Minister Ken Saito said on Friday.

More than 100 people have been confirmed dead and more than 200 are still missing after quake struck the Noto peninsula, on the coast northwest of Tokyo.

The automaker earlier said it would not be able to start production on the planned date due to the sustained damage.    

Previous issues

Toyota has been hit by a series of production issues in recent years, as per Japanese local media, including the October instance when it was forced to halt part of its domestic production for 10 days after an explosion at a supplier's factory caused a shortage of spring components.    

In March 2022, another supplier suffered a cyberattack which resulted in a production halt at all of its factories in Japan.

(With Reuters Inputs)