Toyota Motor to resume Japan plants after rare system malfunction

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By Nicholas Takahashi and Tsuyoshi Inajima


Toyota Motor Corp. said it will gradually resume operations at its 14 domestic plants Wednesday after a system malfunction suspended production, a rare glitch for the world’s biggest carmaker as it rushes to reboot its famed production system. 


The malfunction had made it impossible to order parts, a Toyota spokesperson said, affecting some 28 assembly lines churning out everything from the top-selling Corolla and Camry to Prius hybrids.  The company doesn’t suspect it’s the victim of a cyberattack, the spokesperson said.


Twelve of the 14 plants were idled during the day shift, with only Toyota’s Miyata plant in Fukuoka prefecture and the Kyoto operations of subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co. unaffected. The problem was limited to domestic plants, the spokesperson said. By Tuesday evening, the company announced plans to resume production at all its Japan plants the following day, after suspending overnight production. 


Hino Motors Ltd., another Toyota subsidiary, said Tuesday it was also experiencing system issues and would halt four assembly lines across two Japanese plants.


Toyota shares fell as much as 0.8% in early Tokyo trading after the production suspension was announced, before erasing most of the losses to close 0.2% lower. 


In February 2022, Toyota had to shut all 14 of its domestic plants after one of its suppliers was subjected to a ransomware attack. It took several days for operations to recover, and the incident impacted about 5% of Toyota’s output for the month.


In July, a suspected Russian ransomware attack crippled Japan’s biggest port in Nagoya. Toyota, which relies heavily on the port, said shipments were temporarily halted but there was no impact on production.


Toyota produced and sold a record number of vehicles in June as operations continued to recover from a shortage of semiconductors and other parts.


(Updates with plans to resume operations in first paragraph)


–With assistance from K. Oanh Ha.