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Another Day, Another Delay as Toyota Will Shut Down All Its Japan Plants

Toyota announced on Monday that it would begin the month of March with a total closure of its plants in Japan. This time semiconductors and shipping routes aren’t to blame. A cyberattack changed the carmaker’s plans.
Toyota Manufacturing Facility 6 photos
Photo: Toyota Europe
Toyota's European Manufacturing Plants and OperationsToyota's European Manufacturing Plants and OperationsToyota's European Manufacturing Plants and OperationsToyota's European Manufacturing Plants and OperationsToyota's European Manufacturing Plants and Operations
Toyota is a key industrial player in Japan. It managed the chip crisis unexpectedly well and kept deliveries to a reasonable amount despite many challenges. Unfortunately, now it hit another roadblock. This time it can’t navigate it properly because it’s about an important business partner.

According to Nikkei, Toyota is forced to stop the entire activity at all its plants in Japan. An important supplier suffered a cyberattack of large magnitude that disrupted normal business. The carmaker’s employees and leadership are actively trying to see if the current crisis can be resolved in a day or two. Until further developments, Toyota won’t make any cars in Japan on the 1st of March and maybe even the day after tomorrow.

The investigations continue at the parts supplier. For now, there’s no information on who’s to blame for the cyberattack that caused this major outage. Kojima Industries will continue to work around to clock for everything to return to normal.

Toyota is once again forced to face production challenges. Only this month they had to stop operations in North America because of the truckers’ protests.

It’s estimated that a day or two of complete shut down for Toyota’s production in Japan might amount to over 13,000 cars delayed for a longer time period.

"Due to a system failure at a domestic supplier (KOJIMA INDUSTRIES CORPORATION), we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan on Tuesday, March 1st (both 1st and 2nd shifts). We apologize to our relevant suppliers and customers for any inconvenience this may cause. We will also continue to work with our suppliers in strengthening the supply chain and make every effort to deliver vehicles to our customers as soon as possible," said Toyota in a brief statement published on its media portal.

Toyota refused to elaborate further on the matter. It seems like the carmaker is actively working to resume its activity as fast as possible. Customers will undoubtedly be notified about what happened and will have to wait more for their cars.

The Japanese automaker has an entire city named after the company in its home country. Formerly known as Koromo, it changed its name to Toyota City in 1959 – a sign that reflects the importance of its industrial prowess.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows photos of Toyota's European plants.

About the author: Florin Amariei
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Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one.
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