A strong earthquake occurred in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, raising widespread concerns about the risk of disruption in the supply of auto parts.

According to reports, it has been over a week since the major earthquake centered in Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan. Disaster assessment and recovery efforts are underway, and local factories are gradually resuming production. However, some factories have sustained severe damage, and their restart timelines remain uncertain; there are also concerns about stable supply of components, leading some factories to remain closed. In a financial report press conference on Tuesday, Takanori Azuma, head of Toyota's accounting group, stated, "Priority is given to saving lives, followed by regional reconstruction, and finally to the recovery and restart of production. We will strictly adhere to this priority in making cautious decisions regarding production operations." On the morning of July 29, the day after the earthquake, Toyota temporarily reopened three factories in Fukuoka Prefecture, but production was halted again that evening, with plans for the downtime to continue until Wednesday. The Toyota factory in Aichi Prefecture has been closed since Monday and is expected to remain shut until Friday, partly due to planned construction work on the production line.