Toyota Motor Corp. cut winter bonuses for the first time for about 8,700 managers as a global recession cripples car demand, the automaker said Tuesday.

The company lowered bonuses by about 10 percent, according to Shinji Miyatake, a Tokyo-based spokesman for the carmaker. It is the first reduction in bonuses since 1998 when the company introduced a new pay system.

Miyatake declined to say how much the company will save. Toyota has about 69,000 employees in Japan.