Nissan to Close 2 Kanagawa Prefecture Plants; Production Cuts Eyed at 5 Overseas Plants

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:22 JST, May 17, 2025

Nissan Motor Corp. plans to close two plants in Kanagawa Prefecture and restructure five plants overseas by fiscal 2027 as part of its efforts to turn its business around, according to informed sources.

In Japan, Nissan is preparing plans to shut down the firm’s flagship Oppama plant in Yokosuka and the Shonan plant of its subsidiary Nissan Shatai Co. in Hiratsuka, both in Kanagawa Prefecture. Overseas, the firm is considering production cuts at five plants in Mexico and three other countries, the sources said.

The firm, which has fallen into a sea of red ink, apparently intends to expedite efforts to improve its business performance by massively overhauling its production bases.

If Nissan closes its main production plant, it will be the first such closure since that of the Murayama plant in Tokyo in 2001. The envisaged plan would also mean that the firm will close all automotive assembly plants in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the company was founded in 1933.

Overseas, the automaker is considering ending vehicle production in South Africa, India and Argentina and closing two plants in Mexico.

In the automaker’s 1999 Revival Plan, a large-scale restructuring initiative undertaken under the leadership of former President Carlos Ghosn, five plants, including parts manufacturing plants, were shut down. Under the presently envisaged plan, it is considering not only closing seven automotive assembly plants but also reorganizing plants that make components.

The Oppama plant began its operation in 1961. It is known as Nissan’s flagship production base, where it became one of the world’s first companies to start mass production of electric vehicles. It has an annual production capacity of 240,000 cars and produces the Note, a compact car model. It employed about 3,900 workers as of the end of October in 2024.

The Shonan plant, which produces commercial vans, has an annual capacity of 150,000 units and employs about 1,200 workers.

Nissan has three other automotive assembly plants in Japan — one in Tochigi Prefecture and two others in Fukuoka Prefecture.

While the automaker is struggling with sluggish sales worldwide, its excess production capacity is a drag on its operations. Though it has an annual production capacity of about 1.2 million units in Japan, it produced only about 640,000 units in 2024.

According to the research agency MarkLines Co., the operating rates of Oppama and Shonan plants stood at about 40% in fiscal 2024, far below the widely believed break-even point of 70% to 80%.