Toyota group plant to resume operations

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Toyota Motor Corp. head office

NAGOYA (Jiji Press) — An automobile assembly plant of a Toyota Motor Corp. group company that stopped its operations early Thursday morning due to an industrial water supply trouble in central Japan will operate as usual during the night on the same day, according to Toyota officials.

The Nagakusa plant of Toyota Industries Corp. in Obu, Aichi Prefecture, which is commissioned to produce Toyota’s RAV4 SUV, suspended daytime operations of two production lines after the water supply issue forced the Toyota headquarters plant in the city of Toyota in the same prefecture to discontinue the production of some auto parts used at the Nagakusa plant.

On Wednesday, it came to light that the supply of industrial water to some areas of Aichi may have to be suspended due to a major water leak that hit a weir in the prefecture. Related businesses, many of which are automobile-related companies, saved on water use and made efforts to secure alternative sources of water.

Toyota, which usually uses the industrial water in question to wash its products, switched to the use of well water and took other measures to avoid the impact of the water trouble.

The group will make decisions about the future operations of its plants based on the developments of the water leak problem.