NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. will raise its domestic production plan for this year from an initial 3.2 million units to more than 3.35 million, which was the output last year, company sources said Wednesday.
The maneuver is in line with stronger-than-expected demand in the U.S. market.
It will be the first increase in domestic output in two years. Toyota will announce the plan by the end of the month.
Toyota initially expected vehicle demand in the U.S. market would be considerably affected by the Sept. 11 attacks as well as by declines in U.S. stock prices.
But demand has remained firm, spurring the company to step up output in Japan of such popular models as the Corolla, of which production in its U.S. facilities may fall short of demand there, they said.
Exporting vehicles from Japan has become less profitable due to the recent falls of the dollar against the yen.
Nevertheless, the firm U.S. market is enough to support the extra domestic production.
Toyota is not expected to change its output projection for the domestic market, which stands at 1.75 million units, even though sales so far this year have remained below year-earlier levels due to the slack economy.
Toyota believes the goal is attainable by launching aggressive promotional programs and stimulus from successive model changes scheduled this fall for its sport utility vehicles, the sources added.
New payment system
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to deposit employee salaries into accounts at its brokerage unit, Toyota Financial Services Securities Corp., a Toyota spokesman said Wednesday.
Toyota Motor has not yet set a date for introducing the new salary-payment system, Tetsuo Kitagawa said.
A published report earlier in the day said Toyota Motor's 66,000 employees can opt to have the automaker remit their salaries into the accounts.
Toyota envisions allowing companies in the Toyota Group to use the same system at the wholly owned brokerage based in Nagoya, the daily said.
The brokerage will manage the accounts with UFJ Bank, which will allow users to access their funds through the UFJ network of automated teller machines, it said.
The brokerage will invest the pool of the wages in a type of bond-oriented mutual fund that currently yields 0.01 percent, about 10 times the average yield of ordinary deposits at bank accounts, according to the newspaper report.
Kitagawa did not confirm the details of the Asahi report.
The Japan Times: July 18, 2002