Japan to Reduce Car Production by Three Million Units

Even though Japanese automakers are obviously in better shape than their American rivals, the country's top 12 companies may be forced to apply significant job cuts, as part of their attempt to counteract the recession. Basically, we're talking about job and production cuts, drive.com.au wrote quoting a survey issued by Jiji Press. The largest Japanese car manufacturers may axe no less than 25,000 jobs in the current business year to March, following the continuously decreasing demand of new cars all over the world.

In addition, the 12 companies may slash production by as much as three million vehicles from the initial scheduled for this year, the survey read. Toyota accounts nearly a half of this lowered production as the world's largest automaker might reduce the annual capacity by 1.5 million.

Toyota last week commented on the possibility to slash several thousands of jobs in its domestic market, following a report claiming the company may turn to this kind of cost-cutting measure to align production with market demand. The Japanese manufacturer however said it doesn't plan to make voluntary cuts to its workforce but an official decision is yet to be announced.

"No decisions have been finalized. However, current business conditions are not forcing us to make involuntary reductions of Toyota team members,” Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said in a statement, according to Autonews.

In contrast to all these news, Toyota's current situation is clearly better than the one of American automakers who were close to collapse in December. In addition, Toyota last week became the world's number one carmaker after it managed to overtake General Motors in total annual sales with nearly 9 million units delivered in 2008.