Former GM executive tapped for Toyota board

TOKYO | Toyota has tapped a former executive at U.S. rival General Motors to join its board, the first time in the Japanese automaker's 76-year history it is appointing directors from outside the company.

Auto parts execs forgo pay after price-fixing case

TOKYO | The Japanese auto parts company pleading guilty to price-fixing in the U.S. promised to prevent a recurrence Friday, with its top executives returning part of their pay in a sign of remorse.

Toyota quarterly profit $1.2 billion as sales recover

TOKYO | Toyota cruised back to profit in the latest quarter as the world's top carmaker cut costs and hitched a ride on the global auto sales recovery while fighting to salvage its reputation for quality.

Toyota president battles crisis in family company

TOKYO | Akio Toyoda's appointment as the president of Toyota last June was full of promise. The grandson of the automaker's founder, he was expected to boost morale for the rank and file and help steer the company through a brutal slump in the auto market.

Toyota pedal fix too late to prevent backlash

NAGOYA, Japan | Toyota's fix for the gas pedal problem that led to the recall of millions of cars has not come soon enough to prevent a consumer backlash in the U.S. and elsewhere that is battering its sales.

Toyota projects first loss in 70 years

NAGOYA, Japan | Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will report the first operating loss in 70 years, acknowledging that after a decade of rapid growth it can no longer escape the slowdown plaguing the global auto industry.

US auto woes mean trouble for Japanese makers, too

TOKYO | Japan's automakers aren't celebrating the troubles of their U.S. rivals, believing that what's bad for the industry in America is bad for carmakers in Japan, too.

Green at the heart of Panasonic's bid for Sanyo

TOKYO | Panasonic Corp.'s plans to take over rival Sanyo Electric Co. would create the world's second-largest electronics maker. But Panasonic already has plenty of gadgets. Instead, the crown jewels Panasonic wants from Sanyo are green.

Toyota woos Japanese buyers

YOKOHAMA, Japan | Shiny Toyotas are lined up outside the gleaming stores and restaurants at a new Japanese shopping mall. The automaker is trying to cope with a serious problem: Young people in Japan are rapidly losing interest in cars, sending auto sales to 27-year lows.

iPod shoots sparks during recharge, possible defect probed

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.'s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said Wednesday.

Toyota beats GM in global vehicle production 2007

TOKYO | Toyota may have fallen short of General Motors in global vehicle sales last year, but it's beaten its U.S. rival in another measure -- global vehicle production.

As Japan's economy changes, whistleblowers grow bolder in exposing wrongs

TOKYO | When officer Toshiro Semba revealed his bosses in the police department were forging receipts to wine and dine on the public's money, they took his gun away.

Toyota looks to next-generation hybrids

TOYOTA, Japan | Since he was a teenager, Takeshi Uchiyamada's dream was to make a car. But as he entered his 50s as a Toyota engineer, he had all but given up hope he would ever head a project to develop a model.

Honda shows hybrid sports car at Tokyo Motor Show

TOKYO | Hybrids don't have to sacrifice looks to be environmentally friendly -- they can be muscular and stylish, too.

Toyota explores Japanese roots at Tokyo auto show

TOKYO | Toyota wants to bring Zen to the art of making a car.

No partying at Toyota city headquarters of Japanese automaker on road to No. 1

TOYOTA, Japan | Steadily, relentlessly, quietly. Toyota is closing in on dethroning General Motors, the longtime king of the world's automakers.

Toyota's profit jumps 32 percent to record for a quarter

TOKYO | Toyota, on track to overtake General Motors as the world's biggest automaker this year, said Friday its April-June profit jumped 32.3 percent to a record high for a quarter, lifted by strong overseas sales and a weaker yen.

Honda decides to stop making hybrid Accords

TOKYO | Honda will discontinue the hybrid version of its Accord sedans, the company said Tuesday, ceding Toyota's dominance of the market with its Prius hybrid.

Sony develops film-thin display that bends in full color

TOKYO | In the race for ever-thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all -- a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

Toyota's 1Q sales beat GM's preliminary numbers

TOKYO | Toyota Camry, take a bow. Prius, bask in the limelight. Strong demand for those models helped propel the Japanese car maker onto the throne as the world's largest auto seller -- at least for the first quarter of 2007.

Japan automakers create Japan jobs while 'Big Three' slash U.S. jobs

TOKYO | At a time when Detroit's "Big Three" are closing plants and slashing jobs to revive their ailing business, their Japanese counterparts are busy opening plants in Japan for the first time in decades.

Toyota reports record quarterly profit, sales

TOKYO |Toyota, hot on the heels of General Motors to become the world's No. 1 automaker, reported a 7.3 percent jump in quarterly profit Tuesday on booming sales in North America and Europe that offset sluggish demand in Japan.

Toyota forecasts 9.42 million vehicles in '07

NAGOYA, Japan | Toyota announced Friday a global production target of 9.42 million vehicles for next year, increasing the odds that the Japanese manufacturer will surpass troubled General Motors Corp. as the world's No. 1 automaker.

Toshiba, Fujitsu also recall Sony batteries

TOKYO | The Japanese electronics makers Toshiba and Fujitsu are recalling batteries made by Sony for their laptop computers while personal computer maker Dell expanded its earlier recall of Sony battery packs. The batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers to…

Toyota targets 9.8M global vehicle sales in 2008

TOKYO | Toyota announced an ambitious plan Wednesday to boost global sales to 9.8 million vehicles in 2008 -- driving home a message of stellar success as its troubled U.S. rivals are closing plants and scaling back production.

U.S. beef arrives at Japanese restaurant chain, first since ban was lifted

TAKATSUKI, Japan | Savoring sizzling slices of beef, Shuji Shimoji doesn't care if the restaurant where he is dining is the only one in Japan to begin serving American beef since a ban was lifted last month.

Ban over, but where's the beef?

TOKYO | It's been weeks since Japan ditched its import ban on U.S. beef and the first shipment went on sale, but American beef is nowhere to be seen at supermarkets here -- except this nation's five Costco stores.

Honda gets mileage out of U.S. gas prices

TOKYO | First-quarter profit at Honda soared nearly 30 percent as a solid reputation for mileage lifted sales in the U.S., a critical region that makes up half of the Japanese automaker's vehicle sales.

World Cup fever kicks off sleek TV sales

PRO SOCCER | 2006 WORLD CUP

"The Toyota Way"

TOYOTA, Japan | At a center for teaching Toyota production methods, workers from around the world learn bolt-tightening by moving dance-like to a metronome and practice paint jobs by studying videos of their performance.

GM sells Isuzu shares for $300 million

TOKYO | Cash-strapped General Motors Corp. is selling the shares it holds in truckmaker Isuzu to two Japanese trading companies and a bank for about $300 million to fund its turnaround in North America, the U.S. automaker said Tuesday.

Toyota introduces hybrid for rear-wheel drive Lexus

TOKYO | Toyota's latest luxury car is powered by the world's first commercially mass produced hybrid system that's especially designed for rear-wheel drive vehicles.

Toyota reports surging profit for third quarter

TOKYO | Toyota, whose solid growth could put it ahead of General Motors as the world's No. 1 automaker, reported a 34 percent rise in profit Tuesday for the quarter ended Dec. 31 as sales jumped in North America and Asia.

Sipping by

CHIBA, Japan | The usually futuristic "concept cars" at the Tokyo auto show are taking on an all-too-real immediacy this year amid soaring oil prices, with ecologically-friendly autos grabbing the limelight.

Apple opens iTunes store in Japan

TOKYO | Apple Computer Inc. launched its music download service, the iTunes Music Store, in Japan on Thursday with 1 million songs, the maker of the hit iPod portable player said.

Protests dent business

TOKYO | Shares of Japanese companies tumbled Monday amid fears about the economic fallout from intensifying Chinese civil and political protests against Japan as relations between them soured to the worst in decades.

"Father of PlayStation"

TOKYO | Ken Kutaragi, whose name is often paired with "geek" and "genius," seemed to many a logical choice to take Sony Corp.'s helm as it struggles to turn around its stumbling electronics business.

Monumental merger

TOKYO -- UFJ Holdings Inc., Japan's fourth biggest banking group, asked larger rival Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. on Wednesday to start talks about a merger that could create the world's biggest bank. Mitsubishi Tokyo said it was considering the request.

Toyota reports record sales

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s annual profit surged 55 percent, making Japan's biggest automaker the nation's first company to earn more than 1 trillion yen in a single year.

Wal-Mart a hit in Japan

NUMAZU, Japan -- The aisles are wide, the selection is huge -- and Wal-Mart's first warehouse-sized supercenter store in Japan is a hit with shoppers.

'Cool hunter' hits Japan

TOKYO -- Loic Bizel leads visitors through alleys packed with wild-haired youngsters, makes his way into tiny boutiques tucked beneath stairwells and points out fatigue-inspired jackets, hand-painted sneakers and plaid miniskirts.

Cell phone cameras spread new brands of mischief

TOKYO -- It may have been inevitable. Now that cell phones with little digital cameras have spread throughout Asia, so have new brands of misbehavior.

Nintendo to focus on better games

TOKYO -- Nintendo Co. plans to expand its share of the video game market by focusing on making better games rather than on building increasingly powerful game players, its new president said Thursday.