Toyota Motor Corp. announced Friday it will cease production at a plant operated by one of its subsidiaries in Shizuoka Prefecture by 2020 at the earliest, moving its operations to a factory in northeastern Japan to improve efficiency and competitiveness.
In Toyota's first reorganization of domestic passenger car assembly operations since 2011, Toyota Motor East Japan Inc. will start transferring around 1,100 employees from its Higashi-Fuji plant to plants in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures from the fall.
Among the models manufactured in Shizuoka, Toyota Motor East Japan will be moving production of the Porte compact car and JPN Taxi minivan to the Miyagi Ohira plant and the Iwate plant.
It will also consider moving production of its Century luxury sedans to another factory in Aichi Prefecture. Estimated output at the Higashi-Fuji plant is 50,000 units a year.
"We have improved production efficiency to a level where we can achieve planned annual output at the two plants in the northeast," a Toyota Motor East Japan official said. It has yet to determine what the Higashi-Fuji plant will be used for once its operations are moved elsewhere.