Toyota Motor announced that it would suspend domestic factory operations on Tuesday, March 1, after one of its suppliers was targeted by a suspected cyberattack. Kojima Industries, which produces electronic components and plastic parts for Toyota, suffered a devastating crash to its system on Monday, February 28.
A spokesperson for Kojima issued a statement, saying the company appeared to have been a victim of some kind of cyberattack. A Toyota spokesperson described the incident as a "supplier system failure."
As a result of that system crash, Toyota would temporarily shut down 28 production lines at 14 Japanese plants. That is a huge blow for Toyota as the auto giant will be losing around 13,000 vehicles of output because of the closure.
Toyota scheduled the shutdown for Tuesday's first and second shifts, but the Japanese automaker is unsure if the closure will extend to another day. Toyota hopes that won't be the case as its 14 plants in Japan account for a third of its global production.
No information was given about who was the one responsible for the cyberattack. Kojima's system failure, however, comes just after Japan joined its Western allies in imposing sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine. However, it was not clear if the attack on the Japanese company's system was part of Russia's retaliation to those sanctions.
As per Reuters, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that his government would launch an investigation and determine whether Russia was involved in the cyberattack.
Kishida told reporters in a press conference that it is difficult to say that Russia was behind the cyberattack before making thorough checks. Kishida himself announced on Sunday that Japan would join other countries, including the United States, in blocking some Russian banks from gaining access to the SWIFT international payment system. Kishida also said that Japan would provide $100 million in emergency aid to Ukraine.
Toyota was not the only automaker affected by the March 1 shutdown as some of the closed Japanese plants were operated by the company's affiliates, Daihatsu and Hino Motors. Toyota is known in the auto industry for its Just-In-Time manufacturing method, with parts from suppliers going straight to the production line instead of being stockpiled.
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Toyota's production stoppage comes at the worst possible time for the world's biggest automaker, with the company already facing supply chain issues to start the year. A global semiconductor shortage has been wreaking havoc on the entire auto industry ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, forcing Toyota and other carmakers to curb the production of their vehicles up to now.
Toyota also had to halt production in some of its plants in North America last month due to parts shortages caused by the trucker protests on several border crossings in Canada.
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