Toyota Motor has declined to comment on Japanese media reports its is expecting global sales to fall 7% in fiscal 2009/10.


The Nikkei business daily said the automaker anticipated sales of just over 7m vehicles next fiscal year compared with an expected 7.54m this current business year and 8.91m a year previously, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.


Meanwhile, the Tokyo Shimbun, reported on Sunday that Toyota would cut production by a fifth this year.


A Toyota spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the reports to AFP.


“We maintain our view that it is extremely difficult to read the conditions of the global markets now,” she said.

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Separately, according to Reuters, the Chunichi newspaper reported Toyota expects to produce 6.5m vehicles globally on a parent company basis this year, down more than 20% from the estimated 8.2m last year.


It would be the carmaker’s lowest production volume since 2003 and 2004, said the daily, which is a regional newspaper located where Toyota has its main manufacturing base.


Toyota is setting a global sales target for the year of about 7m vehicles, and plans to produce fewer vehicles because it has a high level of inventories to clear, the paper said.


In Japan, Toyota is aiming to cut its parent-company production to around 3m vehicles, down from an estimated 4m last year, the Yomiuri Shimbun said on Monday, according to Reuters.


If global car market conditions deteriorate further, Toyota’s output in Japan could go below 3m, a level it sees as the minimum required to keep the number of full-time employees at the current level, the Yomiuri said.


It would be the lowest production in Japan by Toyota since 1979, when it rolled out 2.99m vehicles, the paper added.


A Toyota spokesman told Reuters the company had not drawn up an official forecast yet.


Toyota last month forecast a first-ever annual operating loss of JPY150bn yen ($US1.7bn) ahead of fiscal third quarter results due on 6 February 6.


Last Tuesday, Toyota named founding family member Akio Toyoda as its new president, replacing Katsuaki Watanabe. He was previously an executive vice-president. Watanabe was named a vice chairman.


Toyoda is the grandson of Toyota’s founder and is charged with rescuing the company from its biggest ever crisis.