As Toyota prepares to nearly halve production at Japanese factories, a regional governor said Thursday he would offer ¥400 billion ($3.72 billion) in emergency loans for small and midsize companies including Toyota's suppliers.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s headquarters are in Aichi Prefecture, in the city of Toyota, which was named after the company in the 1950s to reflect its role as the biggest employer in the region.
"(Toyota is) not only the backbone of Aichi Prefecture's economy but all of Japan," Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura said, adding that it kept valuable manufacturing jobs in Japan while other companies exported their factories abroad.