Honda, Nissan and Mazda suspend plant production and have watched sales drop after anti-Japanese protests in China.
A wave of nationalistic protests has swept China in response to a territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing. Fearing for the safety of their employees, Japan's largest automakers have suspended production in the short term. Mazda and Nissan have both halted production, while Toyota have reported a 15% drop in profits in August.
Nissan suspended production at its two factories in Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, where the protests were severe. Japan's biggest automaker by sales in China also said that deliveries had been affected due to the cutback on marketing events during the unrest. Nissan's “sales in China were already slowing, and this may accelerate a slowdown in sales,” said Mitsushige Akino, executive director at Tokyo-based Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co.
Toyota Motor Corp's China sales also fell by 15% in August from a year earlier, according to a company spokesman, to just 75,300 vehicles. The company decided to re-start production after initially suspending manufacturing, despite ongoing tensions. Toyota is not unfamiliar with misfortune, however, as production ground to a halt after severe earthquakes paralysed production last year. Nonetheless, it remains optimistic it will hit its target of selling one million cars in China by the end of 2012.
During the disturbances, one man drove his Honda Civic to the local dealership, where he proceeded to set it on fire. Reports of many other Japanese cars being vandalised have also emerged, despite the government's calls for “rational nationalism.”
A planned diplomatic trip by Toyota Chairman, Fujio Cjo, also hit problems after his private jet was unable to land in Beijing for the meeting. Mr Cjo had intended to will fly to China as a representative of the Japan-China Economic Association (JCEA) in an effort to reduce the impact of rising tensions between the two nation's automakers. Yang Jian, editor in chief of China Automotive News, believes the recent animosity taps into a deeper feeling of resentment which could potentially affect sales for a long time to come.