Production restarts at all Toyota's Japanese plants

Toyota today resumed car production at all of its plants in Japan for the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but said the factories will run at half capacity due to parts shortages.

The embattled carmaker, which said last week it would shut down its UK manufacturing operations over Easter due to the shortages, said it is still struggling to secure around 150 types of parts for its Japanese facilities.

News that the Japanese plants are all back up and running will reassure British showrooms selling the Japanese-made Prius, Rav4 and iQ models.

So far there have been no shortages of vehicles here, largely due to the fact there is a five or six week time lag between cars being made in Japan and their arrival at UK dockyards. This means the shortages will only be felt in coming weeks.

As well as affecting Toyota's own plants, the earthquake and tsunami destroyed parts factories in northeastern Japan, causing severe shortages of components.

The twin disasters forced Toyota to shut down all output in Japan except at three plants, which have been running at limited capacity since late March and early April to produce the Prius, Lexus and Corolla models.