TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it will suspend domestic factory operations on Tuesday, losing around 13,000 cars of output, after a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components was hit by a suspected cyber attack.
No information was immediately available about who was behind the possible attack or the motive. The attack comes just after Japan joined Western allies in clamping down on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, although it was not clear if the attack was at all related.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government would investigate the incident and whether Russia was involved.
“It is difficult to say whether this has anything to do with Russia before making thorough checks,” he told reporters.
Kishida on Sunday announced that Japan would join the United States and other countries in blocking some Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT international payment system. He also said Japan would give Ukraine $100 million in emergency aid.
A spokesperson at the supplier, Kojima Industries Corp, said it appeared to have been the victim of some kind of cyber attack.
A spokesperson from Toyota described it as a “supplier system failure.”
The company does not yet know if the halt at its 14 plants in Japan, which account for about a third of its global production, will last more than a day, the spokesperson added.
Some plants operated by Toyota s affiliates Hino Motors (7205.T) and Daihatsu (6023.T) are included in the shutdown.
