Toyota Closes Japan Factories as a Typhoon Nears

Toyota Closes Japan Factories as a Typhoon Nears

Toyota, the auto giant, is halting production at all its factories in Japan due to an approaching typhoon, the company announced on Wednesday. A Toyota spokesperson told AFP that all production lines at domestic factories will be paused from the afternoon shift today through the daytime shift tomorrow.

This shutdown affects 28 production lines across 14 group companies, with one line at Hino Motors, a truck manufacturer, set to resume operations on Thursday morning.

The decision was made as Typhoon Shanshan, an "extremely strong" storm, moves towards southern Japan with gusts reaching up to 252 kilometers (157 miles) per hour and causing widespread heavy rainfall.

The typhoon is expected to remain over or near Japan for the rest of the week, heading towards the northeastern region. Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has not yet revealed how many vehicles it typically produces domestically each day.