Outburst! Toyota's 12 Japanese plants are temporarily suspended

According to Reuters, a spokesman for Toyota Motor said that due to a production system failure, Toyota's 12 car assembly plants in Japan began suspending operations on the morning of August 29, which may have caused almost all of its domestic production to be suspended.

The spokesman noted that Toyota was investigating the cause, adding that "it may not have been due to a cyberattack" and that the production failure prevented the company from ordering parts.

The spokesman revealed that all of Toyota's car assembly plants in Japan, except for Miyata's plant in Fukuoka Prefecture and the Kyoto plant at Toyota's subsidiary Daihatsu, were affected. According to Reuters calculations, Toyota Motor has 14 factories in Japan, accounting for about one-third of Toyota's global production.

The spokesman noted that it is uncertain whether production will resume from the afternoon shift on August 29 and how much production will be affected.

Toyota also experienced a production shutdown last year due to a cyberattack on an auto parts supplier, when a one-day outage cost Toyota about 13,000 vehicles.

In early January, Toyota set a benchmark production rate of 10.6 million vehicles for 2023, but also said that if it could not procure enough parts, especially semiconductors, the final production could be reduced by 10%.

However, Toyota also pointed out at the time that the published baseline production did not equate to a formal production target, but only to make it easier for suppliers to make management plans and plan personnel structure and facilities.