With parts distribution networks after the Great East Japan Earthquake returning to normal, Toyota Motor Corp. began increasing production days from Sept. 1 to make up for losses caused by the March 11 disaster.
With parts distribution networks after the Great East Japan Earthquake returning to normal, Toyota Motor Corp. began increasing production days from Sept. 1 to make up for losses caused by the March 11 disaster.
Toyota's dealerships also began receiving more vehicles for sales to customers.
For the July-September period, Toyota has switched workers' days off to Thursdays and Fridays from weekends as a way to help conserve electricity due to power shortages caused by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
However, to increase output, Toyota will run production lines on all five Thursdays in September and on 15 additional normal days off until March.
Rival car makers plan to take similar steps. In September, Nissan Motor Co. will operate its domestic car assembling plants on two or three traditional off days, while Mazda Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. will do the same on two extra days the same month. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co. are also planning to be up and running on some normal off days.
"Although workloads are a little too heavy, I will just follow my work schedule because I had many days off shortly after the March 11 earthquake," said a worker at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. "I will take paid holidays on weekends if I really need to."
Toshiyuki Shiga, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association Inc., said, "As the industry is on a recovery track in production and sales, we will see the largest output increase we have ever experienced.
"We have so many customers on waiting lists (due to the earlier parts shortage), so we will step up efforts to fill the production gap with the support of parts suppliers."
Meanwhile, sales of new cars declined 22.3 percent from a year ago to 329,838 units in August, marking the 12th consecutive month of year on year decreases, according to August figures released on Sept. 1 by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association.
The latest decline is believed to be largely due to a spike in sales in August 2010 driven by a rush to buy before the expiry of new car purchase subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles.
The 2011 August figures marked the first increase compared to 2009 levels since the March 11 quake. In light of the data, JADA said sales of new cars are on a recovery track.
(This article was written by Takeshi Narabe and Yukio Hashimoto.)